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Daily Archives: June 6, 2019

Citation Stickiness

Bennardo, Kevin and Chew, Alexa, Citation Stickiness (April 19, 2019). 20 Journal of Appellate Practice & Process, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3375050 – “This Article is an empirical study of what we call citation stickiness. A citation is sticky if it appears in one of the parties’ briefs and then again in the court’s opinion. Imagine that the parties use their briefs to toss citations in the court’s direction. Some of those citations stick and appear in the opinion — these are the sticky citations. Some of those citations don’t stick and are unmentioned by the court — these are the unsticky ones. Finally, some sources were never mentioned by the parties yet appear in the court’s opinion. These authorities are endogenous — they spring from the internal workings of the court itself. In a perfect adversarial world, the percentage of sticky citations in courts’ opinions would be something approaching 100%. The parties would discuss the relevant authorities in their briefs, and the court would rely on the same authorities in its decision-making. Spoiler alert: our adversarial world is imperfect. Endogenous citations abound in judicial opinions and parties’ briefs are brimming with unsticky citations.

So we crunched the numbers. We analyzed 325 cases in the federal courts of appeals. Of the 7552 cases cited in those opinions, more than half were never mentioned in the parties’ briefs. But there’s more — in the Article, you’ll learn how many of the 23,479 cases cited in the parties’ briefs were sticky and how many were unsticky. You’ll see the stickiness data sliced and diced in numerous ways: by circuit, by case topic, by an assortment of characteristics of the authoring judge. Read on!”

Artificial Intelligence and Legal Decision-Making: The Wide Open? Study on the Example of International Arbitration

Scherer, Maxi, Artificial Intelligence and Legal Decision-Making: The Wide Open? Study on the Example of International Arbitration (May 22, 2019). Queen Mary School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 318/2019. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3392669 “The paper explores the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in arbitral or judicial decision-making from a holistic point of view,… Continue Reading

Study suggest dogs mirror owner’s stress

Phys.org: “The levels of stress in dogs correlate with the stress of their owners, according to a new study from Linköping University, Sweden. The scientists believe that dogs mirror their owner’s stress level, rather than vice versa. The study has been published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports. Researchers at Linköping University have examined how… Continue Reading

Internet of Things – An Introduction

CRS Report via LC – Internet of Things (IoT): An Introduction, June 4, 2019 – “The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated devices that are connected to a network and/or to each other, exchanging data without necessarily requiring human-to-machine interaction. In other words, IoT is a collection of electronic devices that can… Continue Reading

Federal Weapons Prosecutions Continue to Climb in 2019

“According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, two out of every three prosecutions were for the offense of unlawful shipment, transfer, receipt, or possession of a firearm by a felon. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) was the lead investigative agency for 63.5… Continue Reading

Search the Full Text of 3 Million Nonprofit Tax Records for Free

ProPublica – Search the full text of nearly 3 million nonprofit IRS filings, including investments and grants given to other nonprofits. “On June 6, 2019] we launched a new feature for our Nonprofit Explorer database: The ability to search the full text of nearly 3 million electronically filed nonprofit tax filings sent to the IRS… Continue Reading

Audubon Mural Project documents climate threatened birds

“The Audubon Mural Project is a collaboration between the National Audubon Society and Gitler &_____ Gallery to create murals of climate-threatened birds throughout John James Audubon’s old Harlem‐based neighborhood in New York City. The project is inspired by the legacy of the great American bird artist and pioneering ornithologist and is energized by Audubon’s groundbreaking… Continue Reading