Category «Legislation»

Law as Code: 
Introducing AustLII’s DataLex AI

Mowbray, Andrew and Greenleaf, Graham and Chung, Philip, Law as Code: 
Introducing AustLII’s DataLex AI (November 16, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3971919 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3971919 “AustLII, as a provider of free access to legal information, has a distinctive approach to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) which is called ‘DataLex’. This article introduces that approach, and …

Subjects: AI, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation, Libraries

Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Bill to Make PACER Free

Bloomberg Law – “The Senate Judiciary Committee approved bipartisan legislation Thursday designed to make U.S. court documents free to the general public. Committee members of both parties asked to be included as cosponsors of the measure (S. 2614) that would require the federal judiciary to create a new PACER system that would be free for …

Subjects: Courts, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

Success in Criminal Legal Reforms, 2021

“Formerly incarcerated activists, lawmakers, and advocates achieved important changes in criminal justice policy this year to reduce mass incarceration, expand voting rights and advance racial justice. Success in Criminal Legal Reforms, 2021, by Nicole D. Porter, describes these key changes: Sentencing: Several states addressed extreme sentencing. Two states — Colorado and Illinois — addressed felony …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

Visualizing the Effect of Climate Pledges on Global Temperatures

Center for Data Innovation: “The New York Times has created a series of visualizations depicting the effects different government climate change pledges will have on global temperatures. The visualizations use data on government pledges from Climate Action Tracker, an environmental advocacy organization in Germany. For example, one visualization shows that greenhouse gas emissions under current …

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Health Care, Legal Research, Legislation

How to fix social media? Start with independent research.

Brookings: “…The system of APIs set up by Twitter over the past decade—most of which were set up for business purposes as opposed to research—led to a flowering of academic research using Twitter data. And to be very clear, Twitter deserves kudos for making so much data available, including specialized collections around Russian Internet Research …

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Government Documents, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy, Social Media

The Rise of Plain Language Laws

Blasie, Michael, The Rise of Plain Language Laws (October 1, 2021). University of Miami Law Review, 2022 Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3941564 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3941564 “When lawmakers enacted 778 plain language laws across the United States, no one noticed. Apart from a handful, these laws went untracked and unstudied. Without study, large questions remain about these …

Subjects: Education, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation

Statement in Support of the Freedom to Vote Act

Democracy Letter November 2021: “We, the undersigned, are scholars of democracy writing in support of the Freedom to Vote Act, the most important piece of legislation to defend and strengthen American democracy since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This bill would protect our elections from interference, partisan gerrymandering, dark money, and voter suppression. We …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Economy, Education, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

The Lumen database collects and analyzes legal complaints and requests for removal of online materials

Lumen.org: “Lumen collects and studies online content removal requests, providing transparency and supporting analysis of the Web’s takedown “ecology,” in terms of who sends requests, why, and to what ends. Lumen seeks to facilitate research about different kinds of complaints and requests for removal – legitimate and questionable – that are being sent to Internet publishers, …

Subjects: Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Patent and Trademark, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media

OSC Issues Hatch Act Report Documenting Violations by 13 Senior Trump Administration Officials, Including at the 2020 Republican National Conventio

“The U.S. Office of Special Counsel November 9, 2021 issued a report outlining the investigative findings of its career Hatch Act Unit staff in response to Hatch Act complaints filed with OSC regarding senior Trump administration officials’ participation in the 2020 Republican National Convention (RNC) and their political activities leading up to the presidential election. …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

Study Warns of ‘Educational Gag Orders’

Inside Higher Education: “A new report from PEN America, “Educational Gag Orders: Legislative Restrictions on the Freedom to Read, Learn, and Teach,” says that in the first nine months of 2021, 24 state legislatures introduced 54 bills that would restrict the teaching and training of subjects including race in K-12 schools, higher education or state …

Subjects: Censorship, Education, Free Speech, Legislation

The car becomes the weapon

Boston Globe (paywall) – Demonstrators around the country have been injured and killed by vehicle rammings, but there’s been precious little justice. And new laws could make accountability even scarcer…Given the choice between defending the safety of pedestrians protesting a police murder and the drivers of the vehicles running them down, prosecutors and lawmakers here …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Education, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation