Association of American Law Schools
2001 Annual Meeting
Wednesday, January 3, 2001 - Saturday, January 6, 2001
San Francisco, California
Friday, January 5, 2001
10:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m.

Imperial B
Hilton San Francisco and Towers
Ballroom Level

Joint Program of Sections on Law Libraries and Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research
Judith Ford Anspach, Hofstra University, and Chair, Section on Law Libraries
Kathleen O'Neill, University of Washington, and Chair, Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research
Judith Gaskell, DePaul University, and Program Co-Chair, Section on Law Libraries
Daniel Barnett, Boston College, and Program Co-Chair, Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research

What is "Authority"?

Moderator:

Daniel Barnett, Boston College

Speakers:
Robert C. Berring, University of California at Berkeley
The Honorable M. Margaret McKeown, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, Seattle, Washington
Frederick K. Schauer, Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment and Academic Dean, John F.Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Recent technological advances have created potentially far-reaching changes in legal information. Technology now gives us access to legal information that is impermanent, and has altered the way legal information in general is identified, categorized, and located. These changes in the availability and use of legal information have in turn affected the boundaries of what we see as legal authority, and this change may have enormous impact on the American legal system.

The program will focus on the implications of these technological advances. In exploring this question, the panel will address how recent changes in technology have altered the nature of authority and how new technology may continue to expand the idea of precedent and other authority, particularly in light of recent decisions regarding the constitutionality of rules restricting the use of unpublished judicial opinions.

Back to Friday schedule