Section Highlights

Submitted by Colin Marks This discussion group explored, in-depth, assessment in the law classroom and in particular formative assessment. It was quickly agreed that formative assessment is not only valuable to the students’ ultimate ability master the materials but is also likely to become a required part of law school curricular requirements with the coming years. But assessment comes with a number of challenges, not the least of which is the time it takes to craft good formative assessment but also grade them, and grade them consistently. Technology can help facilitate administering formative assessments, but large class sizes present issues for formative assessment for anything beyond multiple choice questions. It was agreed that current and upcoming students are likely to

Submitted by Lou Virelli More than fifteen administrative law scholars gathered on Tuesday afternoon to discuss how the Supreme Court’s recent articulation of the major questions doctrine (MQD) will impact our teaching and scholarship. The MQD instructs courts to read statutes empowering agencies narrowly in cases where an agency’s action under that statute addresses a “major question,” i.e. where agency action is economically, socially or politically significant. In terms of the MQD’s impact on teaching, the group discussed whether and, if so, how to best introduce our students to the following issues: Is the MQD part of the constitutional nondelegation doctrine or a tool of statutory interpretation that implicates judicial deference to agency interpretations (like Chevron deference); If the MQD

Submitted by Colin Marks Discussants prepared brief papers or summaries in anticipation of this discussion group which were shared. Each discussant began by giving a brief overview of a topic that touches on the exploits of Elon Musk that they wished to explore. The topics varies greatly from securities violations, to the implications of his recent Twitter deal to even the ethical and moral implications of representing Musk. But at the heart of much of the discussion was Musk himself and how he is, for better or for worse, an animating factor in many legal debates. One topic of debate that came up were whether Musk adds value or wealth which got to the very heart of wealth creation and

Submitted by Brian Owsley As a result of the pandemic, online became essential.   Eleven law schools already applied for and received variances from the ABA for online education.  Three more law schools are on the ABA’s August agenda for such variances. St. Mary’s previously had an online masters in law program well-positioning them to start an online JD.  There is a university-wide online training certification program that all law professors teaching in its online program have completed.  All required courses are taken by the online students in a lock step fashion.  The lock step nature builds cohesiveness among the group as a whole.  Non-teaching components harder to get onboard than professors. Mitchell Hamline inaugurated its hybrid online program in January

Submitted by Keith Robinson The IP and Web3 panel took place on Sunday at 1 PM in Juniper 4.  This well-attended program brought together intellectual property scholars to discuss the emerging technologies of Web3 and how the current intellectual property landscape will impact Web3’s development.  Web3 is a phrase used to describe a collection of technologies and applications that promise to decentralize the Internet.  The panelists discussed issues surrounding technologies such as blockchain, non-fungible tokens, and quantum computing. The panel was moderated by W. Keith Robinson and featured four expert panelists.  Raina Haque discussed blockchain and property durability.  Josh Fairfield discussed ideas surrounding the making of virtual things.  Nikola Datzov talked about issues surrounding enforcement of IP rights in the