Law professor at the University of Virginia. Legal theory, originalism, textualism, virtue jurisprudence, artificial intelligence, philosophy of language, moral and political philosophy.
Lawrence Byard Solum is an American legal theorist known for his work in the philosophy of law and constitutional theory. He is the William L. Matheson and Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor of Law and the Douglas D. Drysdale Research Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he has taught since 2020. He was previously the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. .. more
The Legal Theory Bookworm recommends Sedition: How America's Constitutional Order Emerged from Violent Crisis by Marcus Alexander Gadson. Here is a description: How Americans have weathered constitutional crises throughout our history Since protestors…
The Download of the Week is In CASA You Missed It by Mila Sohoni. Here is the abstract: This Essay’s purpose is to show how Trump v. CASA should be read—and how it emphatically should not be read. While CASA rejected one pathway to universal…
Markus G. Puder (Loyola University New Orleans College of Law) has posted Convivencia of the Third Kind: The Rise of Rights of Nature and Life Balance Under the Cupola Called Earth (40 J. Envtl. L. & Litig. 85 (2025)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Convivencia - a term that…
David M. Smolin (Samford University - Cumberland School of Law) has posted Nontherapeutic Research with Children: The Virtues and Vices of Legal Uncertainty on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This essay examines the legal framework governing…
Mila Sohoni (Stanford Law School) has posted In CASA You Missed It (139 Harvard Law Review (forthcoming 2026)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Essay’s purpose is to show how Trump v. CASA should be read—and how it emphatically should not be read. While CASA rejected one pathway…
Bernadette Meyler (Stanford Law School) & Elliot Setzer (Yale University) have posted Cardozo's Living Constitutionalism in Comparative Context (Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities | Vol. 35:3 2024) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Although he…
Laura Ginsberg Abelson (Southern Methodist University - Dedman School of Law) has posted The Fourth Amendment's Hidden Intrusion Doctrine (111 Va. L. Rev. 1255 (2025)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Fourth Amendment’s concept of probable cause is…
Anna Lukina (London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)) has posted Evil Law in St. Thomas Aquinas's Philosophy on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In this paper, I argue that St. Thomas Aquinas's account of evil as privation holds a key to understanding the…
It is my annual tradition to give thanks to a person to whom I owe debts of gratitude on Thanksgiving Day. This year, I want to thank Richard Fallon, who was a teacher, interlocutor, mentor, and friend for fifty years. Dick was my Federal Courts teacher at Harvard Law School. He was…
Nestor Lim (News Media Nest; University of Makati) has posted A Legal Framework for the Allowance of Artificial Intelligence Systems to Practice Law in the Philippines on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Legal services in the Philippines are currently…
Joshua A. Douglas (University of Kentucky - J. David Rosenberg College of Law) has posted One Decade, One Map: State Constitutional Limits on Mid-Decade Redistricting (110 Minnesota Law Review (forthcoming 2026)) on SSRN. Here is…
Andrew S. Gold (University of California, Irvine School of Law) has posterd The Many Kinds of Justice in Private Law on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Private law theorists often employ a single type of justice to explain the field. Typically, the chosen type is…
Brian G. Slocum & Kevin Tobia have posted the final version of Pragmatic Textualism on the Duke Law Journal website. Here is the abstract: Traditional textualism instructs judges to adhere to a statute's linguistic meaning and reject as irrelevant its…
Eric S. Fish (University of California, Davis - School of Law) & Doug Keller have posted Fabricating the Crime of Undocumented Presence on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In 2025, the Trump Administration’s Office of Legal Counsel declared that it is…
Ignacio Adrian Lerer has posted Epistemological Clergies: When Orthodoxy Blocks Rational Debate on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Why is rational debate about criminal or labor law reform impossible in certain jurisdictions This article proposes that dominant…
Jee Won Park (Hallym University) & Sungmi Park (Hallym University) have posted When Correct Isn't Enough: Deconstructing Legal Causal Reasoning Capability in Large Language Models on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Knowledge-based systems powered…
David Lee (Columbia University - Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; The New School) has posted The Nonprofit War on Workers. Weapons of Labor Violence: An Analysis of the Chinese-American Planning Council's Legal Tactics to Exploit Workers on SSRN. Here is…
Amanda Frost (University of Virginia School of Law) & Emily Eason (University of Virginia (UVA) School of Law - Alumni/Adjunct/Student) have posted The Dog That Didn't Bark: Eligibility To Serve In…
Jacob Eisler (Florida State University College of Law) has posted Populist Primacy (Brooklyn Law Review, Forthcoming 2025) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Critics of the Roberts Court assert that the conservative justices…
Vinicius Fernandes Ormelesi (Minas Gerais State University) has posted The Inclusive-Exclusive Legal Positivism Debate: A Very Short Introduction on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The debate between inclusive and exclusive legal…
Konstantinos Zoupas has posted From The Court Clerk of Criminal Trials to the Algorithm: Technology and the Future of Court Clerks in Criminal Proceedings on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The introduction of artificial intelligence technologies into judicial functions…
Jeffrey A. Brauch (Regent University - Regent University School of Law) has posted Beauty, Justice, and the Lawyer's Calling: A Review of Mark Fowler's Beauty and the Law (Journal of Christian Legal Thought, Volume 15, No. 2 (2025), pp. 72-75) on SSRN. Here…
Samuel J. Levine (Touro University - Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center) has posted A Brief Look at Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism Through a Perspective of Jewish Law and Tradition (Perspectives on Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism from Literature,…
Jason Mazzone (University of Illinois College of Law) & Vikram D. Amar (University of California, Davis - School of Law; University of Illinois College of Law) have posted Open Letter To The Supreme Court Urging Adherence To Settled Mootness Principles…
William Baude (University of Chicago - Law School) has posted Liquidation, Then and Now (3 Journal of American Constitutional History 869 (2025)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The deliberate acts of different parts of our government have created various non-judicial…