Oranburg on Private Governance as a Club Good Seth Oranburg (University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law) has posted "Private" Governance Is Actually a Club Good on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Network governance is a club good. Courts that displace a network's authority to ostracize rule-breakers weaken the excludability that makes governance valuable to members and non-members alike. When the ostracism mechanism loses credibility, members defect from governance obligations, governance quality declines, and the positive externalities governance creates for non-members disappear.

Oranburg on Private Governance as a Club Good

Seth Oranburg (University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law) has posted "Private" Governance Is Actually a Club Good on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Network governance is a club good. Courts that displace a network's authority to ostracize…

Varsava on the Nature of a Precedent’s Error

Nina Varsava (University of Wisconsin Law School) has posted The Nature of a Precedent's Error, Jurisprudence, 1–23 (2026), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This paper considers whether and under what conditions a judge might take herself to be justified…

Richard Primus: Is the Oldest Constitutional Question Substantive or Methodological? Michael Ramsey – The Originalism Blog originalismblog.com/richard-prim...

Klass and Owen on the President and the Power Grid Alexandra B. Klass (University of Michigan Law School) and Dave Owen (UC Law, San Francisco) have posted The President and the Power Grid, forthcoming in Michigan Law Review Online (2026), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: There is a sharp discontinuity between the second Trump administration's electricity policies and those of previous presidential administrations. President Trump has directed the Department of Energy to use statutory authority designed for wartime conditions and sudden emergencies to prevent electric utilities from retiring aging coal plants.

Klass and Owen on the President and the Power Grid

Alexandra B. Klass (University of Michigan Law School) and Dave Owen (UC Law, San Francisco) have posted The President and the Power Grid, forthcoming in Michigan Law Review Online (2026), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: There is a sharp…

Herman on Retroactivity and Constitutional Interpretation in Federal Civil Matters

Howard Herman has posted From Harper To Sessions: The Double Standard Of Retroactive Application Of Constitutional Interpretation In Supreme Court Decisions In Federal Civil Matters on SSRN. Here is the abstract:…

Sunstein on Ethical Nudging Cass R. Sunstein (Harvard Law School) has posted Ethical Nudging on SSRN. Here is the abstract: All over the world, governments are using nudges as regulatory tools. Is this ethical? When? Much of the answer depends on whether nudges promote or instead undermine welfare, autonomy, and dignity. Many nudges, and those that deserve support, promote some or all of those ideals, and undermine none of them.

Sunstein on Ethical Nudging

Cass R. Sunstein (Harvard Law School) has posted Ethical Nudging on SSRN. Here is the abstract: All over the world, governments are using nudges as regulatory tools. Is this ethical? When? Much of the answer depends on whether nudges promote or instead undermine…

Boston on Title IX and NIL Compensation Tan Boston (Northern Kentucky University) has posted Proportionate NIL Paradigms in Kansas Law Review, Volume 75, on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Gender equality is the prerequisite for a fair and just society. To this end, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 ("Title IX") seeks to end sex discrimination in educational settings and, ultimately, society as a whole. Yet despite storied progress in higher education, women still experience unequal treatment.

Boston on Title IX and NIL Compensation

Tan Boston (Northern Kentucky University) has posted Proportionate NIL Paradigms in Kansas Law Review, Volume 75, on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Gender equality is the prerequisite for a fair and just society. To this end, Title IX of the Education…

Hadebe on AGOA’s Expiry and African Development Sovereignty Siyabonga Hadebe (Maastricht University, Faculty of Law) has posted AGOA’s Expiry as a Neo-Colonial Rupture: Tariffs, Critical Minerals and the Right to Development Sovereignty in Africa on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The expiry of the non-reciprocal African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) on 30 September 2025 marked the end of 25 years of preferential trade relations between the United States and Africa.

Hadebe on AGOA’s Expiry and African Development Sovereignty

Siyabonga Hadebe (Maastricht University, Faculty of Law) has posted AGOA’s Expiry as a Neo-Colonial Rupture: Tariffs, Critical Minerals and the Right to Development Sovereignty in Africa on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The expiry of the…

Ross on Free Exercise and Religion-Based Batson Challenges Jeremy Ross (University of Virginia) has posted The End of Peremptory Strikes?: Free Exercise and Religion-Based Batson Challenges in 87 Montana Law Review 11 (2026), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article explores and applies recent changes in free exercise doctrine to analyze how courts may evaluate proposals to extend the protections of Batson v. Kentucky to religious affiliation, status, and/or belief.

Ross on Free Exercise and Religion-Based Batson Challenges

Jeremy Ross (University of Virginia) has posted The End of Peremptory Strikes?: Free Exercise and Religion-Based Batson Challenges in 87 Montana Law Review 11 (2026), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article explores and applies recent…

Many thanks to @lsolum.bsky.social for including this on the Legal Theory Blog!

Núñez and Williams on Apophatic Interpretation and Birthright Citizenship

D. Carolina Núñez and Lucy Williams (Brigham Young University - J. Reuben Clark Law School) have posted Apophatic Interpretation, Birthright Citizenship, and the Anti-Aristocratic Constitution, BYU Law Research Paper No.…

Koh on Incapacitating the Immigration Courts Jennifer Lee Koh (Pepperdine University — Rick J. Caruso School of Law) has posted Incapacitating the Immigration Courts, forthcoming in S.M.U. Law Review, on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Amidst the dizzying array of developments taking place under the banner of mass deportation, the second Trump Administration is engaged in a sustained effort to fundamentally transform the country's immigration courts by incapacitating them.

Koh on Incapacitating the Immigration Courts

Jennifer Lee Koh (Pepperdine University — Rick J. Caruso School of Law) has posted Incapacitating the Immigration Courts, forthcoming in S.M.U. Law Review, on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Amidst the dizzying array of developments taking place under the…

Vertinsky on AI Capture of Democratic Information Networks Liza Vertinsky (University of Maryland Carey School of Law) has posted How Law Facilitates AI Capture of Democratic Information Networks in Research Handbook on Law in the Age of Superintelligence (Woodrow Barfield & Jonathan Blitz eds., forthcoming), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This chapter explores the ways in which digital information technologies—information technologies involving some combination of the internet and use of AI—have impacted the information networks underpinning our market democracy, and what we might expect in the future as the influence of an increasingly intrusive AI on information networks expands.

Vertinsky on AI Capture of Democratic Information Networks

Liza Vertinsky (University of Maryland Carey School of Law) has posted How Law Facilitates AI Capture of Democratic Information Networks in Research Handbook on Law in the Age of Superintelligence (Woodrow Barfield & Jonathan Blitz eds.,…

Legal Theory Stack for Monday, April 20, 2026 The Legal Theory Stack for today has been published. Here is a link: Subscribers to the free edition of the Stack receive a daily summary of Legal Theory Blog delivered to their inbox.

Legal Theory Stack for Monday, April 20, 2026

The Legal Theory Stack for today has been published. Here is a link: Subscribers to the free edition of the Stack receive a daily summary of Legal Theory Blog delivered to their inbox.

Cade on the Trump Administration’s Board of Immigration Appeals Jason A. Cade (University of Georgia School of Law) has posted Welcome to the Trump Administration's Board of Immigration Appeals. The Immigrant Always Loses., forthcoming in Yale Law Journal Forum (2026), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Volume 29 of the Board of Immigration Appeals' precedential decisions is not a collection of independent legal judgments. It is a project. The Trump administration has used the Attorney General's self-referral power and a reconstituted, ideologically aligned Board to issue approximately 89 precedential decisions, at more than three times the historical pace, in its first fourteen months.

Cade on the Trump Administration’s Board of Immigration Appeals

Jason A. Cade (University of Georgia School of Law) has posted Welcome to the Trump Administration's Board of Immigration Appeals. The Immigrant Always Loses., forthcoming in Yale Law Journal Forum (2026), on SSRN. Here is the…

Tarar & Tarar on Vigilantism and the Postcolonia Crisis Jalal Tarar & Shahbaz Tarar (University of London) have posted Batman and the Perpetual Rupture: Vigilantism, Redemption and the Postcolonial Crisis on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Legal orders persist not through their coherence but through their capacity to accommodate their own insufficiencies. Law does not sustain itself autonomously; it survives by deferring resolution, operating through mechanisms that exist beyond its formal structure.

Tarar & Tarar on Vigilantism and the Postcolonia Crisis

Jalal Tarar & Shahbaz Tarar (University of London) have posted Batman and the Perpetual Rupture: Vigilantism, Redemption and the Postcolonial Crisis on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Legal orders persist not through their coherence but through…

Aquinas on the Ethics of Happiness In Aquinas on the Ethics of Happiness, Joseph Stenberg sets out to offer the reader what he describes as a “big-picture reconstruction”...

Aquinas on the Ethics of Happiness | Reviews | Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews | University of Notre Dame ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/aqui...

Jalal Tarar & Shahbaz Tarar: Myth, Metaphysics, and the Afterlife of the Framers Michael Ramsey – The Originalism Blog buff.ly/nLcu2yU

Zombie Legal Theory–Is the Holding-Dictum Distinction Now Among the Living Dead? The second edition of the Legal Theory Musings is now available to paid subscribers on substack. This week I am musing about disarray in the doctrines governing stare decisis. Here is a link to the homepage for Legal Theory Stack:

Zombie Legal Theory–Is the Holding-Dictum Distinction Now Among the Living Dead?

The second edition of the Legal Theory Musings is now available to paid subscribers on substack. This week I am musing about disarray in the doctrines governing stare decisis. Here is a link to the homepage for Legal…

Legal Theory Lexicon: The Hermeneutic Circle

Every lawyer who has interpreted a statute or a constitutional provision has encountered the hermeneutic circle, even if they have never heard the name. The problem is this: to understand a legal text, you must understand its parts; but to understand…

Oh hell yeah that’s my jam right there

Interesting piece arguing that data brokers who sell to government agencies are state actors. I'd just add that the government entities who purchase data from brokers are (obviously) also state actors to whom the Constitution applies.

Legal Theory Bookworm: “Populism and Courts in an Age of Constitutional Impatience” by Girard

The Legal Theory Bookworm recommends Populism and Courts in an Age of Constitutional Impatience: Judges vs the People by Raphaël Girard. Here is a description: This book addresses one of the most pressing…

Download of the Week: “Proportionality in Administrative Law” by Walker

The Download of the Week is Proportionality in Administrative Law by Christopher J. Walker. Here is the abstract: In this era of rapid change in administrative law—both at the Supreme Court and from the White House—the…

Ciani et al on Green Robots Jacopo Ciani (University of Turin - Faculty of Law), Ugo Pagallo (University of Turin, Department of Law), Massimo Durante (University of Turin, Department of Law), & Ludovica Paseri (University of Turin) have posted The Charge of Green Robots: From Environmental Robot Ethics to an Environmental Rule of Law for Robotics on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Environmental robots-i.e. autonomous systems designed for ecological monitoring, conservation, and restoration-are increasingly crucial in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss.

Ciani et al on Green Robots

Jacopo Ciani (University of Turin - Faculty of Law), Ugo Pagallo (University of Turin, Department of Law), Massimo Durante (University of Turin, Department of Law), & Ludovica Paseri (University of Turin) have posted The Charge of Green Robots: From Environmental Robot…

Schomburg on the Citizen Derivative Suit and Popular Sovereign Standing Clifford Schomburg has posted The Citizen Derivative Suit: Enforcing the Constitutional Charter When Internal Checks Fail; A Theory of Popular Sovereign Standing in Federal Equity on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Constitution of the United States is the foundational charter of a republic whose sovereign citizens are its owners. Like any charter, it creates an entity—the United States of America—defines its structure, allocates powers among its agents, and limits their authority.

Schomburg on the Citizen Derivative Suit and Popular Sovereign Standing

Clifford Schomburg has posted The Citizen Derivative Suit: Enforcing the Constitutional Charter When Internal Checks Fail; A Theory of Popular Sovereign Standing in Federal Equity on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The…

The Constitution’s Forgotten Term Limit on Military Power A forgotten constitutional safeguard limits military funding to two years. Reviving the Army Clause could restore congressional control over militarization.

The Constitution’s Forgotten Term Limit on Military Power www.justsecurity.org/136339/const...

Walker on Proportionality in Administrative Law

Christopher J. Walker (University of Michigan Law School) has posted Proportionality in Administrative Law, forthcoming as the Foreword to the Annual Administrative Law Issue in the George Washington Law Review, Vol. 94 (2026), on SSRN. Here is the…

Stone on Schauer’s Free Speech Comparativism

Adrienne Stone (University of Melbourne - Law School) has posted Schauer's Free Speech Comparativism on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This essay, written as a tribute to Professor Frederick Schauer, offers reflections on two of the most important essays…

McWilliam on the Meaning of “Arms” in the Second Amendment Jamie G. McWilliam (University of Wyoming — Firearms Research Center) has posted Arms, forthcoming in 101 Tulane Law Review (2026-2027), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen reoriented Second Amendment doctrine around text and history but left unresolved a foundational threshold question: what qualifies as an "Arm" under the Amendment's text. In the wake of…

McWilliam on the Meaning of “Arms” in the Second Amendment

Jamie G. McWilliam (University of Wyoming — Firearms Research Center) has posted Arms, forthcoming in 101 Tulane Law Review (2026-2027), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen reoriented Second…