Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

Hemel and Herzig in the WSJ: Republicans can repeal Obamacare, for a price

Daniel Hemel and David Herzig discuss the filibuster and the future of the Affordable Care Act in the Wall Street Journal.

Some publications and working papers this year

I appreciate the many blog readers who also read my scholarly writing--it has been one of the best things about the blog for years that it has been a vehicle for sharing my work with other faculty and students across many fields.   In that spirit, here are publications--or working drafts--that I made available this year:

"The Case Against Free Speech" appeared in Sydney Law Review.

 

"Legal Positivism about the Artifact Law," forthcoming in an OUP volume on Law as Artifact.

 

"Theoretical Disagreements in Law: Another Look," forthcoming in an OUP volume on Ethical Norms, Legal Norms:  New Essays in Metaethics and Jurisprudence.

 

"Philosophy of Law," co-authored with Michael Sevel, in the Encyclopedia Britannica (if you can't access the whole essay, google "philosophy of law," it should come up as a top result and you can get the whole essay that way)

 

"The Paradoxes of Public Philosophy," in the inaugural issue of the Indian Journal of Legal Theory.

 

"Why Tolerate Religion, Again? A Reply to Michael McConnell," a working paper (but citable) at SSRN. 

 

"Reply to Five Critics of Why Tolerate Religion?", part of a symposium on my book published by Criminal Law and Philosophy this year.

 

A revised version of "The Death of God and the Death of Morality," which will eventually appear in a special issue of The Monist on Nietzsche.

 

"Moralizing Nietzsche's Moral Psycology: The Case of Katsafanas," a review essay which also appears at Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

 

"Moralities are a Sign-Language of the Affects," appeared in 2013 in Social Philosophy and Policy, but I was now able to make the published PDF available on SSRN.

 

There were actually a couple of other papers I wrote this year that I could not put on SSRN, alas--though hopefully, like the last paper, I will be able to post them in the future after publication.  And then there were papers previously put on SSRN that finally appeared in books this year (e.g., here and here), but for which I have not been able to put a PDF on-line.

Thanks for reading!  And a Happy New Year to all readers!

Federalism and Baby Jesus (with a nod to Trump)

Rick Hills (NYU) comments.

Law school enrollment trends over 40+ years

Useful charts here.  JD enrollment has stabilized, though well below its peak; non-JD enrollment has spiked as law schools try to sustain financial viability for schools that grew to their present size during the years of peak demand for legal education.

Oregon law professor violated university's racial harassment policy...

...according to an investigation by outside counsel.  The report (available at the preceding link) ultimately turns on a Pickering balancing analysis, which like most such analyses could easily have come out the other way.

UPDATE:  Some additional context here.

ANOTHER:  Oregon law professor Shurtz objects to release of report, claiming errors and violations of confidentiality.  I suspect this matter is heading to court.

Dept. of Education to pull federal student loans from Charlotte Law School

MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY--UPDATED

Unless the decision is reversed, the school will almost certainly go out of business.

UPDATE:  DOE's statement about the decision.

"The Case Against Free Speech"

This long-gestating paper has finally appeared in the Sydney Law Review (it was originally presented as the 2013 Julius Stone Address in Jurisprudence at Sydney), and can be downloaded here for those who are interested.  

David Faigman named Dean at UC Hastings

He had been the Interim Dean, and seemed, at least to an outsider, the obvious choice for the permanent post.  He is also a leading evidence scholar.

Letter to Senators opposing nomination of Senator Sessions as Attorney General

You may sign the letter here.

In Memoriam: Mary Doyle (1943-2016)

An environmental law scholar, she was Dean and Professor Emerita at the University of Miami.  The Miami memorial notice is here.