SEALS News & Announcements

Dear SEALS Colleagues, I am very pleased to announce that the 74th Annual Conference of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) is still going to be held, albeit in a different format. The Covid-19 virus has forced all of us to abruptly alter our personal and professional lives in ways that we could not have imagined last year. One of the cruel aspects of the outbreak has been the necessity for restricted travel and socialization at a time when many of us feel the need to connect and collaborate. However, it would be irresponsible for the SEALS Board to recommend in-person attendance given recent infection trends in Florida and a number of other states in which SEALS has members.

Dear SEALS Deans, Program Committee members, and attendees: It is now possible to submit panels and discussion groups for SEALS’ 2020.  The submission link can be found here: http://sealslawschools.org/index.php/conference-submissions/ Every year, on the SEALS survey, we see comments such as “I wish that SEALS would offer more programming in my area.”  Please bear in mind that SEALS functions in a very egalitarian and democratic manner.  There are no “sections” which control the programming in particular subject areas.  ANYONE is free to put together a panel or discussion group and submit it through the submission portal.  So, if you want to see more programming in a particular subject area, please organize and submit a proposal.  We will do our best to

A mobile app for SEALS 2019 is now available. It contains the conference schedule, speakers, and other information. It also lists attendees who have allowed their information to be viewed through the app. Registered attendees should have already received an email invitation to download the app. To get the app: Search the app store for your phone for the CrowdCompass AttendeeHub app and install it. Launch the CrowdCompass app and search for SEALS 2019 in the event listing. Select the event to launch. Direct questions about the app to pjetton@wlu.edu.

On Monday, August 6, 2018, SEALS honored the 2018 Call for Papers winners at a luncheon at which each winner presented their papers. Emily Berman’s (University of Houston)article “A Government of Laws and Not of Machines” (98 B.U. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2018)) reviews “Machine learning”  – a powerful form of artificial intelligence that uses mathematical algorithms to construct computer models that analyze and extract patterns from enormous data sets, often for the purpose of making predictions about the future. This Article considers the government’s use of machine learning in the context of law enforcement and national security decision-making, taking a step back from the nuts and bolts questions surrounding the implementation of predictive analytics on which most scholarly commentary has