Subject to ongoing revision:
last revised 6/21/2007

Reading List


Only the readings specifically assigned in advance of a class meeting are required reading. The others listed here provide background for the topics covered in each unit.

Unit No. 1 - eLaw: An overview

Unit No. 2 - Judicial opinion dissemination and access

Unit No. 3 - Dissemination of codified law (statutes, administrative regulations, and municipal ordinances)

Unit No. 4 - The input side of legal institutions

  • eFiling: In general
  • eFiling: The litigation context
  • Specific implementations
    • Administrative Office of the Courts, CM/ECF
    • Drayton Nabers, Jr., Improving the Quality of Justice, 67 Ala. Law. 38 (2006) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Matthew C. Baltay, Heads Up: Electronic Filing in D. Mass: Moving Towards the Paperless Practice, 49 B.B.J. 14 (Feb. 2005) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Joseph H. Firestone & James C. Horsch, Technology and the Law: Are You Ready for E-Filing?, 84 MI Bar Jnl. 22 (2005) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Peter S. Vogel, Technology: You Can EFile in State Courts Today, 69 Tex. B.J. 114 (2006) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Charles Bacarisse, Staying Ahead of the Curve: E-Filing in State Courts: Fast, Cheap, and Under Control, 68 Tex. B. J. 575 (2005) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Douglas E. Cressler, Federal Appeals: The Scoop on Electronic Submission and Filing, 18 Utah Bar J. 30 (2005) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • New York State Unified Court System, Practice System, https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/mainframe.html
  • Public access to public records in tension with other values and interests
    • Lynn E. Sudbeck, Placing Court Records Online: Balancing Judicial Accountability with Public Trust and Confidence: An Analysis of State Court Electronic Access Policies and a Proposal for South Dakota Court Records, 51 S.D. L. Rev. 81 (2006) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Daniel J. Solove, Access and Aggregation: Public Records, Privacy and the Constitution, 86 Minn. L. Rev. 1137 (2002) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Natalie Gomez-Velez, Internet Access to Court Records - Balancing Public Access and Privacy, 51 Loy. L. Rev. 365 (2005) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Peter A. Winn, Online Court Records: Balancing Judicial Accountability and Privacy in an Age of Electronic Information, 79 Wash. L. Rev. 307 (2004) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Privacy and Access to Electronic Case Files in the Federal Courts (1999)
    • Richard J. Peltz, Joi L. Leonard, & Amanda J. Andrews, The Arkansas Proposal on Access to Court Records: Upgrading the Common Law with Electronic Freedom of Information Norms, 59 Ark. L. Rev. 555 (2006) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Jayne S. Ressler, Privacy, Plaintiffs, and Pseudonyms: The Anonymous Doe Plaintiff in the Information Age, 53 Kan. L. Rev. 195 (2004) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Nancy S. Marder, Introduction to Secrecy in Litigation, 81 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 305 (2006) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Andrew D. Goldstein, Sealing and Revealing: Rethinking the Rules Governing Public Access to Information Generated Through Litigation, 81 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 375 (2006) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Kristen M. Blankley, Note: Are Public Records Too Public? Why Personally Identifying Information Should Be Removed from Both Online and Print Versions of Court Documents, 65 Ohio St. L.J. 413 (2004) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Michael Whiteman, Appellate Court Briefs on the Web: Electronic Dynamos or Legal Quagmire?, 97 Law Libr. J. 467 (2005) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • CCJ/COSCA Guidelines for Public Access
    • Commission on Public Access to Court Records, Report to the Chief Judge of the State of New York (2004)
    • Report of the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management on Privacy and Public Access to Electronic Case Files (2001)
    • NSCS, State rules on public access to court records
    • MN Access Rules

Unit No. 5 - The communication of legal materials, policies, and standard practices within public law-making and law-applying bodies

Unit No. 6 - The conduct of legal proceedings

Unit No. 7 - Impact of eLaw on the work of lawyers and structure of law firms

Unit No. 8 - Putting eLaw in a comparative perspective

Unit No. 9 - Speculations about the future

  • An increased role for ODR?
    • Ethan Katsh, Online Dispute Resolution: Some Lessons from the E-Commerce Revolution, 28 N. Ky. L. Rev. 810 (2001) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Elizabeth G. Thornburg, Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control: Lessons from the ICANN Dispute Resolution Process, 6 J. Small & Emerging Bus. L. 191 (2002) [Lexis][Westlaw]
    • Amy S. Moeves & Scott C. Moeves, Two Roads Diverged: A Tale of Technology and Alternative Dispute Resolution, 12 Wm. & Mary Bill of Rts. J. 843 (2004) [Lexis][Westlaw]
  • Asynchronous legal proceedings?
    • Paul D. Carrington, Virtual Civil Litigation: A Visit to John Bunyan’s Celestial City, 98 Colum. L. Rev. 1516 (1998) [Lexis][Westlaw]
  • A fully integrated criminal justice system?
  • New forms of expressing and communicating law?
  • An altered role for lawyers and law firms?