Blog Archives
Vanderbilt Hosts Summit on Law and Innovation
June 16, 2018
Creating connections and collaborations between people across the legal world, including academics, practitioners, legal technology experts, and others. Moving the legal profession and legal education into the 21st century and beyond. Those are the goals of an April 30 summit at Vanderbilt Law School called SoLI: The Summit on Law and Innovation. The goals are ambitious but necessary, say summit co-facilitators Caitlin (Cat) Moon and Larry Bridgesmith, adjunct professors at the school’s Program...
June 16, 2018
Creating connections and collaborations between people across the legal world, including academics, practitioners, legal technology experts, and others. Moving the legal profession and legal education into the 21st century and beyond. Those are the goals of an April 30 summit at Vanderbilt Law School called SoLI: The Summit on Law and Innovation. The goals are ambitious but necessary, say summit co-facilitators Caitlin (Cat) Moon and Larry Bridgesmith, adjunct professors at the school’s Program...
Statutory Interpretation on the Bench: A Survey of Forty-Two Judges on the Federal Courts of Appeals
June 15, 2018
This Article reports the results of a survey of a diverse group of forty-two federal appellate judges concerning their approaches to statutory interpretation. The study reveals important differences between their approaches and the approach that the Supreme Court purports to take. It also helps to substantiate the irrelevance of the enduring, but now-boring, textualism-versus-purposivism debate. None of the judges we interviewed was willing to associate himself or herself with “textualism” without...
June 15, 2018
This Article reports the results of a survey of a diverse group of forty-two federal appellate judges concerning their approaches to statutory interpretation. The study reveals important differences between their approaches and the approach that the Supreme Court purports to take. It also helps to substantiate the irrelevance of the enduring, but now-boring, textualism-versus-purposivism debate. None of the judges we interviewed was willing to associate himself or herself with “textualism” without...
Do Checklists Work?
June 15, 2018
"Checklists" have long-endured as an inexpensive--and seemingly efficacious--way to reduce risk flowing from tasks requiring complex decision-making. In many complex endeavors--e,g, piloting an aircraft or surgery--checklists are ubiquitous. Indeed, checklists are so pervasive that their efficaciousness is typically assumed or implied. Exploiting a natural experiment that arose in Seattle and involved state department of health restaurant inspection protocols, in Do Checklists Make a Difference?...
June 15, 2018
"Checklists" have long-endured as an inexpensive--and seemingly efficacious--way to reduce risk flowing from tasks requiring complex decision-making. In many complex endeavors--e,g, piloting an aircraft or surgery--checklists are ubiquitous. Indeed, checklists are so pervasive that their efficaciousness is typically assumed or implied. Exploiting a natural experiment that arose in Seattle and involved state department of health restaurant inspection protocols, in Do Checklists Make a Difference?...
Intelligent Machines Will Teach Us—Not Replace Us
June 14, 2018
Over the centuries, humans have created countless technologies to save ourselves from backbreaking physical labor and mindless routine. AI continues that progress by taking over many rote cognitive tasks that don’t require human judgment, strategic planning or creativity. Whether it’s browsing millions of legal documents or scrutinizing CT scans, machines can now do much expert work faster and more precisely than their human creators. New forms of artificial intelligence will surpass us in new and surprising...
June 14, 2018
Over the centuries, humans have created countless technologies to save ourselves from backbreaking physical labor and mindless routine. AI continues that progress by taking over many rote cognitive tasks that don’t require human judgment, strategic planning or creativity. Whether it’s browsing millions of legal documents or scrutinizing CT scans, machines can now do much expert work faster and more precisely than their human creators. New forms of artificial intelligence will surpass us in new and surprising...
The Rise of Co Mediation in Mega Mediations
June 14, 2018
Enter the co-mediators. While conventional wisdom has co-mediation being considered for a variety of reasons, including combining complimentary skills and expertise, providing a balance in terms of gender, age, culture and language where appropriate, my experience is that co-mediation is considered primarily in two situations in the commercial sector; in mega cases where the claimant and responding groups are incapable of agreeing the identity of a single mediator – so they appoint...
June 14, 2018
Enter the co-mediators. While conventional wisdom has co-mediation being considered for a variety of reasons, including combining complimentary skills and expertise, providing a balance in terms of gender, age, culture and language where appropriate, my experience is that co-mediation is considered primarily in two situations in the commercial sector; in mega cases where the claimant and responding groups are incapable of agreeing the identity of a single mediator – so they appoint...
Lawsuit Lead Time Prediction: Comparison of Data Mining Techniques Based on Categorical Response Variable
June 13, 2018
The quality of the judicial system of a country can be verified by the overall length time of lawsuits, or the lead time. When the lead time is excessive, a country’s economy can be affected, leading to the adoption of measures such as the creation of the Saturn Center in Europe. Although there are performance indicators to measure the lead time of lawsuits, the analysis and the fit of prediction models are still underdeveloped themes in the literature. To contribute to this subject, this article...
June 13, 2018
The quality of the judicial system of a country can be verified by the overall length time of lawsuits, or the lead time. When the lead time is excessive, a country’s economy can be affected, leading to the adoption of measures such as the creation of the Saturn Center in Europe. Although there are performance indicators to measure the lead time of lawsuits, the analysis and the fit of prediction models are still underdeveloped themes in the literature. To contribute to this subject, this article...
1st Circuit Issues Reminder That Courts Can Enjoin Conduct Pending Arbitration
June 13, 2018
One question I get frequently is whether a party can protect the status quo by seeking a court injunction, even if there is an arbitration agreement in place. Usually, I point them back to this post from 2011 (with the caveat that the AAA rules now authorize arbitrators to grant emergency relief, without any need for referencing “optional rules”). But, a new case from the First Circuit — with retired Justice Souter on the panel — confirms that injunctions remain possible, and not just...
June 13, 2018
One question I get frequently is whether a party can protect the status quo by seeking a court injunction, even if there is an arbitration agreement in place. Usually, I point them back to this post from 2011 (with the caveat that the AAA rules now authorize arbitrators to grant emergency relief, without any need for referencing “optional rules”). But, a new case from the First Circuit — with retired Justice Souter on the panel — confirms that injunctions remain possible, and not just...
Preventing Bad Settlement Decisions and Impasse: Using Brain Science, Game Theory, Animated Communication and Micro-Interventions
June 12, 2018
Faculty: Douglas Noll and Don Philbin Please note: This is a high level, advanced course for those engaged in the mediation of litigated disputes, whether as advocates or mediators.The fact patterns of this course will be familiar to the experienced mediator and trial advocate in negotiation: difficult people, heightened emotions, overly confident case assessments, deeply held beliefs, barriers to rational deals.We will explore the neuropsychology behind these defining characteristics and the mediator...
June 12, 2018
Faculty: Douglas Noll and Don Philbin Please note: This is a high level, advanced course for those engaged in the mediation of litigated disputes, whether as advocates or mediators.The fact patterns of this course will be familiar to the experienced mediator and trial advocate in negotiation: difficult people, heightened emotions, overly confident case assessments, deeply held beliefs, barriers to rational deals.We will explore the neuropsychology behind these defining characteristics and the mediator...
Norris on the Federal Arbitration Act
June 12, 2018
Luke Norris (Columbia University - Law School; Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law) has posted The Parity Principle (New York University Law Review, Vol. 93, 2018) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court has interpreted the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925 (FAA) in a broad way that has allowed firms to widely privatize disputes with workers and consumers. The resulting expansive growth of American arbitration law has left commentators both concerned about the structural inequalities...
June 12, 2018
Luke Norris (Columbia University - Law School; Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law) has posted The Parity Principle (New York University Law Review, Vol. 93, 2018) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court has interpreted the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925 (FAA) in a broad way that has allowed firms to widely privatize disputes with workers and consumers. The resulting expansive growth of American arbitration law has left commentators both concerned about the structural inequalities...
‘AIQ’ Review: Getting Smarter All the Time
June 11, 2018
Their book has two goals. First, to document the reach of AI in everyday life: It’s now used to predict corn yields, track gender bias in films, map disease outbreaks and sort vegetables, among hundreds of other applications. But “AIQ” also aims to demystify AI. Each chapter focuses on an algorithm in a different industry, tracing the roots of each back to an innovator from before the computer era. One chapter goes back to Isaac Newton’s stint at the Royal Mint, another to Florence Nightingale’s...
June 11, 2018
Their book has two goals. First, to document the reach of AI in everyday life: It’s now used to predict corn yields, track gender bias in films, map disease outbreaks and sort vegetables, among hundreds of other applications. But “AIQ” also aims to demystify AI. Each chapter focuses on an algorithm in a different industry, tracing the roots of each back to an innovator from before the computer era. One chapter goes back to Isaac Newton’s stint at the Royal Mint, another to Florence Nightingale’s...
