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Here is the latest faculty scholarship appearing in the University of Wisconsin Law School Legal Studies Research Papers series found on SSRN.

  • “America’s Constitutional Contradictions” 71 American University Law Review Forum 1 (2021) by FRANCISKA COLEMAN, UW Law School
    In this Response, Coleman suggests that America’s amoral Constitution is not a free-standing original choice but rather is the product of the nation’s inability to resolve its substantive and procedural self-contradictions: the contradiction between the moral values of the

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Continue Reading Recent UW Law Faculty Scholarship

Thinking of filing a public records request but aren’t sure where to start? Wisconsin Watch has compiled a helpful primer.  Here’s a selection:
First, determine what you want to know and who has that record. The person in charge of keeping and managing these documents at an agency or department is known as the “custodian” of public records. It doesn’t hurt to call the agency to find out who that custodian is.

In crafting your request, it may…
Continue Reading How to Request Public Records in Wisconsin

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Just released, Legal Realism to Law in Action documents the University of Wisconsin Law School’s distinctive approach to teaching and research.  The book, edited by William H. Clune, Voss-Bascom Professor of Law Emeritus, is a collection of papers and interviews describing the innovative law school courses developed by UW Law School faculty from 1950 to 1970.  These courses, which forged a path from legal realism to law and social science, took a “law in action” approach to the…
Continue Reading New Book Recounts Distinctive Approach to Teaching & Research at UW Law School

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Interested in UW Law School’s new State Democracy Research Initiative?  Sign up for their free newsletter for news on the latest research, happenings, and events.  Issues will be published at the end of each semester.  Here are some highlights from the inaugural issue:

REDISTRICTING EXPERTISE

With a decennial redistricting cycle in full swing, we have been actively sharing our expertise. Faculty Co-Director Robert Yablon released a new law review article, Gerrylaundering (NYU Law Review, forthcoming 2022), which has…
Continue Reading UW Law’s State Democracy Research Initiative Newsletter Showcases Restricting & State Constitutional Law Expertise, State Supreme Courts Research

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On the latest episode of the WI Law in Action podcast from the UW Law Library, host Kris Turner interviews UW Law’s David M. Trubek, Voss-Bascom Professor of Law and Dean of International Studies Emeritus and Richard Abel, Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at UCLA Law.  Profs. Trubek and Abel discuss their recent symposium issue, “The Short Happy Life of the Yale Program in Law and Modernization: From the Cold War to Comparative Legal …
Continue Reading WI Law In Action Podcast: David Trubek & Richard Abel on the Short Happy Life of the Yale Program in Law and Modernization

Developed by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, Lumen tracks cease and desist letters concerning online content.  The project documents the notice-and-takedown process and ecology by reporting that a notice or request was sent and received, by and to whom, and regarding what online content.
The Lumen database collects and analyzes legal complaints and requests for removal of online materials, helping Internet users to know their rights and understand the law. These data enable…
Continue Reading Lumen Compiles Cease & Desist Letters for Online Content

The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the armed Illinois teenager who killed two people and wounded another during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has captured the nation’s attention and garnered extensive media coverage. Experts from the University of Wisconsin Law School have provided in-depth commentary and insights as the trial develops. The Law School has compiled a listing of media coverage provided by these faculty experts:

  • Keith Findley, a professor of law, is an expert in evidence, wrongful convictions,

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Continue Reading UW Law Faculty Provide Context on Criminal Law During Rittenhouse Trial

Here is the latest faculty scholarship appearing in the University of Wisconsin Law School Legal Studies Research Papers series found on SSRN.

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Continue Reading Recent UW Law Faculty Scholarship: Meaning of the Constitution’s Preamble, Authority of the Constitutional Committee of Style, Territory as a Victim of Armed Conflict, & Plea Bargaining’s Innocence Problem

An excellent new article by Karen L. Wallace & Rebecca Lutkenhaus, Professors of Law Librarianship at Drake University Law School takes a deep dive into the practice and implications of ranking law faculty scholarly impact.  In their article, “Measuring Scholarly Impact in Law,” forthcoming in the Widener Law Review, the authors argue that “although the U.S. News [scholarly impact ranking] proposal died, legal bibliometric studies will persist and the academy should develop standards for the responsible creation and use…
Continue Reading New Work Recommends Standards for Law Scholarly Impact Analyses

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If you’re a Badgerlink user, take note that the URL has changed to https://badgerlink.dpi.wi.gov.  The old URLs badgerlink.net and badgerlink.org no longer work.

If you’re not a Badgerlink user, what are you waiting for?  Badgerlink is a collection of amazing resources available for free to all state residents via Wisconsin’s libraries through funding from the DPI.  Badgerlink databases contain over 11,000 periodical titles and over 700 newspapers (including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and many Wisconsin…
Continue Reading URL Change for Badgerlink, a Collection of Subscription Databases Available to All Wisconsinites

Legal blogs and law firm websites can be great sources of legal insight and current awareness, especially on local issues.  However, this content is easy to miss if you’re not a subscriber.  Fortunately, there are a couple of useful tools to help you find this content:

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Continue Reading Searching Legal Blogs & Law Firm Websites

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As a legal historian, I’m a big fan of Hein’s Session Law Library which contains the session laws of all 50 U.S. states as well as Canada, Australia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and the D.C. Register. All states are current within 60 days of the printed publication, and all states are available back to inception.  This database was instrumental to my research on sex trafficking in Wisconsin in the late 19th century.

The availability of this database was a…
Continue Reading Hein Completes Indexing of WI Sessions Laws from Inception (1836-2019)

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If you’re a legal practitioner or scholar, you’re almost certainly familiar with The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.  But you may not have heard of the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation. ALWD, from the Association of Legal Writing Directors, is designed to complement the Bluebook.  Whenever I have a  legal citation question that the Bluebook can’t answer, I turn to ALWD.

ALWD recently released a new 7th edition.  The CRIV Blog offers some insights from…
Continue Reading Newly Updated ALWD Guide to Legal Citation Complements, Illuminates the Bluebook

From the Wisconsin State Law Library:
The Wisconsin Criminal Jury Instructions have recently been updated, with a 2021 release approved by the Wisconsin Judicial Conference’s Criminal Jury Instructions Committee. The fifty-ninth supplement to the Criminal Jury Instructions updates the publication on legislative actions and judicial decisions through August 2021.

The update includes revisions of twenty-nine existing jury instructions, as well as five new instructions:

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Continue Reading 2021 Release of the WI Criminal Jury Instructions Now Available

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Have you ever been puzzled by the results from a Google search?  Found yourself wondering how Google connected those results to the words you typed, especially if you didn’t get exactly what you were expecting to find?  Fortunately, the newly enhanced About This Result panel offers some contextual insight into your search results.

To view the About this Result panel, click on the three dots next to most Google search results as shown below.  This will open a new…
Continue Reading Google’s “About This Result” Panel Offers Insight into your Search Results