The Download of the Week is Constitutional Rights as Allocations of Moral Authority by Emad H. Atiq. Here is the abstract: When one generation entrenches a constitutional right intended to bind subsequent generations, whose moral reasoning should govern its application? Constitutional theory usually treats this as a problem of political authority, with answers clustering around two opposing positions: either the adopting generation’s reasoning controls or contemporary interpreters should decide for themselves.

Opinion: Imposing a uniform "hold open" date for job offers to law students would likely put much-needed brakes on accelerated recruiting.

Nina Varsava (University of Wisconsin Law School) & Bill Watson (University of Illinois College of Law) have posted Originalism's General-Law Turn on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Originalists are increasingly turning to a general-law theory of constitutional rights. Under this theory, constitutional enactment declared but did not create constitutional rights. The content of those rights was, and remains, a question of general law—a species of unwritten law, commonly employed at the Founding, that transcends jurisdictional boundaries.

Emad H. Atiq, Contemporary Non-Positivism (2025).Bill WatsonAn all-too-common misconception of the debate between positivists and non-positivists over the nature of law is that the debate hasn’t progr...

[Ed.: for this guest post, commenting on Bill Watson's paper "The Plain Meaning Fallacy," we welcome back Evan Bernick, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Northern Illinois College of Law...

Bill Watson (University of Illinois College of Law) has posted What Are We Debating When We Debate Legal Interpretation? (105 B.U. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2025)) (51 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:...

Thomas Adams, Criteria of Validity, __ Mod. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2025), available at SSRN (Oct. 14, 2024).Alma DiamondMy father used to announce weekly household chore assignments on Sundays. The…

Scott Hershovitz’s book Law Is a Moral Practice contends that law is, well, a moral practice. But what Hershovitz means by that claim is not entirely clear. A modest version of the claim, and one that...