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The American Law Institute Launches Restatement of the Law, Constitutional Torts

The American Law Institute Launches Restatement of the Law, Constitutional Torts

PHILADELPHIA — The American Law Institute’s Council voted today to approve the launch of the Restatement of the Law, Constitutional Torts. The project will be led by Reporters John C. Jeffries, Jr. of University of Virginia School of Law and Pamela S. Karlan of Stanford Law School.

The project will examine the law of 42 USC 1983, which provides an individual the right to sue state government employees and others acting “under color of state law” in the federal court for violations of federal law. Actions under 1983 are the dominant vehicle for securing money damages for federal rights, especially constitutional rights. The project also will cover Bivens[1] actions, the analogous cause of action for violations by a federal officer. Among other topics, the Restatement will cover governmental immunities from suit, local government liability for official policy

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Level Up Your Law Firm Billing Policy

While billing policy might not be the most exciting topic, it’s essential. After all, law firms need to be paid for their work at the end of the day!

If you haven’t already developed a billing policy at your law firm, now is the time to start. By documenting your law firm billing policy, you can save time, generate more revenue, and ensure all members of your team (and even clients!) understand the process.

Developing your law firm billing policy

While billing seems straightforward, unfortunately, there’s lots of risk for miscommunication which can lead to bottlenecks, unpaid bills, and wasted costs. For example, attorneys taking too long to approve bills or adding too many edits can cause a delay in bills getting sent out. Or, the accounting team may have to spend hours upon hours chasing clients for payment. Often,

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Today on our live Legaltech Week roundtable at 3 p.m. ET, we are joined by guest panelist David Horrigan, discovery counsel and legal education director at Relativity, for an advance look at RelativityFest, which convenes next week in Chicago.

David Horrigan

Our panel of legal tech journalists and bloggers will also discuss the week’s top stories in legal tech and legal innovation, including the NetDocuments acquisition of Worldox.

Attendance is free, but, if you have not already done so, you need to register, which you can do here. Register once and you are signed up for all future sessions.

Our lineup changes from week to week, but our regular panelists include:

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“People often say history repeats itself, but we allow history to repeat,” Commissioner Nury Turkel said in his conversation with Stephanie Barclay, a professor at the Notre Dame Law School, this Monday. In the talk, Turkel detailed the ongoing genocide against the Uyghur people in China.

Turkel, who was born in a Chinese “re-education” camp, is the first US educated Uyghur-American lawyer. He was appointed commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom in May 2020 by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. He also recently published a book — “No Escape: The True Story of China’s Genocide of the Uyghurs.”

Turkel began his remarks by describing the situation of the Uyghur people, who are a Muslim ethnic group native to the Xinjiang region in China.

“The Chinese government has locked up anywhere between 2 to 3 million Uyghurs in industrial secure concentration camps that the world has not

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The Decline of Natural Law:
How American Lawyers Once Used Natural Law and Why They Stopped

by stuart banner

oxford university press, 264 pages, $49.95


Dending on one’s perspective, natural law is either a dead letter or a pivotal issue. No contemporary lawyer or judge would cite natural law in a courtroom or judicial opinion. Few philosophers or theologians, on the other hand, would discuss moral law without highlighting natural law. That division has not always been so. Stuart Banner has done us a great service by charting the rise and fall of natural law in American jurisprudence alongside accompanying historical and cultural developments.

His thesis is simple: At the time of the American founding, natural law was an integral part of our social and legal culture and was regularly used by American lawyers, judges, and law professors through the mid-to late 1800s. After that time,

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