Common Law

Season 6 features the kind of robust discussions and debates that go on behind the scenes among faculty at the University of Virginia School of Law. Dean Risa Goluboff returns to host.

Facial recognition technology is used for everything from unlocking your phone to locking up criminals. UVA Law professor Elizabeth Rowe makes the case that biometric data like your face and fingerprints should have trade secret-level protections.

What makes people and organizations obey — or resist — the law? Social scientist Susan S. Silbey, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, discusses her life's work on the subject.

The federal process for reviewing proposed interstate natural gas pipelines was highly contentious several decades ago and is now more of a rubber stamp. UVA Law professor Alison Gocke looks at what changed.

Political scientist James L. Gibson discusses his survey data suggesting the U.S. Supreme Court lost some legitimacy in the eyes of the public after overturning Roe v. Wade.

Congressional conflicts with the executive branch often set off legal battles in the courts, and cases can drag on until the point is moot. UVA Law professor Payvand Ahdout digs into why this is happening and what impact it has on the balance of power.

The rules on character evidence are difficult to apply and riddled with exceptions and problems, according to Teneille Brown, a University of Utah law professor who argues they need to be updated.

The U.S. Supreme Court case Moore v. Harper tests the independent state legislature doctrine and could radically change electoral districting maps and the states' role in federal elections, says University of Virginia law professor Bertrall Ross.

University of Virginia School of Law professor Kimberly Krawiec discusses her work on taboo transactions, such as commercial surrogacy, egg and sperm markets, organ donation and sex work. Risa Goluboff and Cathy Hwang host the episode.

University of Virginia law professor Mitu Gulati looks at the tragic history of Haiti's 19th-century “odious debt” to France after islanders won their freedom from slavery, and discusses whether Haiti could recoup what it lost.

University of Pennsylvania law professor Anita L. Allen discusses her framework for stopping surveillance, fraud and exclusion targeting Black Americans online.

UVA Law professor John Monahan discusses how predicting violence became a concern for courtrooms and mental health practices nationwide, and developed alongside his own career.

Don't care about information privacy because you have nothing to hide? Neil Richards, a law professor at the Washington University in St. Louis and a UVA Law alumnus, explains the extent to which companies mine data and seek to influence you, and why you should care.

George Mason University law professor Jennifer Mascott discusses past and present legal challenges to the president's power to appoint and remove executive officers.

UVA Law graduate Doriane Nguenang '21 discusses her Virginia Law Review article on employment litigation and natural hair and protective hairstyles for Black workers.

Psychologist Elizabeth F. Loftus, a leading expert on memory, discusses how her research transformed the justice system.

Would you rather spend a day in jail or be the victim of a burglary? UVA Law professor Megan Stevenson discusses why her research suggests almost no one should be detained pretrial.

Under some property tax schemes, white homebuyers moving into gentrifying neighborhoods might be getting a substantial tax break, explains UVA Law professor Andrew Hayashi.

UVA Law professor Aditya Bamzai discusses In re Debs and the federal government's use of injunctions with hosts John Harrison and Risa Goluboff.

Yale Law School professor Tom R. Tyler joins co-host and fellow psychologist Gregory Mitchell to discuss Tyler's work on procedural justice, including a training program for Chicago police officers.

The United States and other nations have only recently begun to publicly attribute cyberattacks to other countries, such as Russia. UVA Law professor Kristen Eichensehr proposes more transparency and legal guardrails when exposing cyberattacks.

University of Alabama law professor Tara Leigh Grove, a member of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, joins hosts John Harrison and Risa Goluboff to discuss options for reform and why change is so difficult.

Do ESG funds — those espousing environmental, social and governance values — live up to their label, and should they be regulated? UVA Law professor Quinn Curtis joins hosts Cathy Hwang and Risa Goluboff.

For the fourth season of the podcast “Common Law,” launching Feb. 3, UVA Law professors John Harrison, Danielle Citron, Gregory Mitchell and Cathy Hwang will co-host with Dean Risa Goluboff. Each co-host is helping to choose guests and topics, and bringing their own expertise to the show.

Why are many K-12 schools are still struggling with racial inequity and the legacy of segregation almost 70 years after Brown v. Board of Education? University of Virginia President Jim Ryan discusses the role of the Supreme Court, public policy and higher education in addressing the issue.

Despite dominating in international competition, the U.S. women’s soccer team is paid far less than their male counterparts. UVA Law professor Camilo Sánchez and law student Jolena Zabel explore what players’ efforts around the world to achieve equity in pay and working conditions teach us.

Black communities experience lasting “cultural trauma” from the lack of accountability for police and vigilante violence, explains Boston University School of Law Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig.

UVA Law professor Rachel Harmon, author of “The Law of the Police,” says it’s time for Americans to broadly rethink how we regulate the police.

From interracial marriage to LGBTQ rights, when the Supreme Court decriminalizes private behavior, other forms of regulation step in, says New York University School of Law professor Melissa Murray.

Economic insecurity is affecting Americans’ lives in profound ways, both at home and in politics. Columbia law professor and UVA Law alumnus Michael Graetz discusses his proposals for reform.

From health care to taxes, numerous financial benefits are still tied to whether you are married — even as the marriage rate is declining. UVA Law professor Naomi Cahn discusses how uncoupling benefits from marriage can be more equitable.

UVA Law professor Deborah Hellman discusses her work on how algorithms can compound injustice, and the evolution of her theory on discrimination.

Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy discusses past and present visions for a “promised land” on race, and what law can do to shape it.

What role can law play in making society more equitable? "Common Law" hosts Risa Goluboff and Leslie Kendrick will explore how inequities touch our lives, sometimes in unexpected ways. Tune in Jan. 26 for the first episode.

Harvard Law School professor Richard Lazarus discusses how environmentalists made history with the U.S. Supreme Court case Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency.

University of Virginia School of Law professor Saikrishna Prakash discusses his new book on how the presidency’s authority has grown and how Congress might check the executive.

As the world battles the novel coronavirus, University of Virginia history professor Christian McMillen discusses what lessons we can learn — and improve upon — from past pandemics.

Why did colonists wear Native American costumes at the Boston Tea Party? Professor Farah Peterson investigates the history of mob protests for economic rights on the path to America’s unwritten constitution.

As women began to enter law school, educators worried about whether the curriculum was fit for female ears, UVA Law professor Anne Coughlin explains. These same issues manifest today in debates over whether professors can teach the law of sexual assault in an era of trigger warnings.

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance ’85 discusses a revolution in how prosecutors are thinking about and pursuing justice.

The Supreme Court took on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan in 1964, in part, to protect the civil rights movement. But did justices go too far in making libel hard to prove? UVA Law professor Frederick Schauer explains new concerns.

The Supreme Court said the Constitution didn’t guarantee a right to education in the 1973 case San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, but litigation aiming for equity continues, as UVA Law professor Kimberly Robinson explains.

A Union effort to redistribute land to former slaves during the Civil War unraveled because of the efforts of Southern lawyers, UVA Law professor Cynthia Nicoletti explains.

As World War II made clear, the United States needed to step up on civil liberties and civil rights to take on the Soviet Union, UVA Law professor G. Edward White explains.

After the U.S. surgeon general released a landmark report on the dangers of smoking, lawyers and activists helped curb a public health epidemic, UVA historian Sarah Milov explains.

The second season of “Common Law” explores pivotal moments when law — and lawyers — changed the world. Hosts Risa Goluboff and Leslie Kendrick look back at turning points that shed light on the world today and how we got here. Tune in Oct. 1 for the first episode.

With scientific evidence an intrinsic and complex part of today’s court cases, can judges keep up? Senior U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York discusses challenges and opportunities for jurists.

UVA Law professors Richard Schragger and Micah Schwartzman join Cornell’s Nelson Tebbe to discuss the evolution of the Supreme Court's jurisprudence on religion.

As tech transforms traditional warfare, UVA Law professor Ashley Deeks explains how national security is changing and discusses whether the law can keep up.

From courtroom apps to analyzing law texts, UVA Law professor Michael Livermore explains how technology is reshaping legal processes and yielding new insights.

UVA Law professor and insurance and torts expert Kenneth Abraham and alum Mike Raschid ’86, chief legal officer and vice president of operations at Perrone Robotics, discuss what a future with autonomous vehicles will mean for liability and beyond.