How Laws Get Online: Challenges in Free Law

In this webinar, LII Co-Directors Sara Frug and Craig Newton will help attendees understand various nuances in the codification of federal statutes and regulations, as well as identify issues recently or currently in litigation regarding when and how governments place private works into the public domain by incorporating them into statutes or regulations. Sara will discuss the process by which finalized statutes and regulations move from what is approved by governmental authority to the form, format and features that the bar and the public see when conducting research on LII, Justia, or for-profit legal research platforms like Fastcase, Westlaw, or Lexis. Craig will then discuss both recently decided and also pending litigation that may define clearer rules for what happens when private entities claim copyright on materials that become part of the public law that citizens are presumed to know. Lastly, the webinar will touch on the implications of these issues not just for today’s legal research tools, but also for the AI-powered applications that might assist lawyers in the near future.

Topics covered include:

Legal Research Law Practice Legal Industry Trends

Agenda:

Introductory Overview

About Cornell's Legal Information Institute (LII), its mission, and its history
An overview of how laws and legal resources get online

How Federal Statutes & Regulations Get Into Legal Research Platforms

Congress, Public Laws, and the U.S. Code
Electronic dissemination and organization of enacted statutes
The Executive Agencies and the Rulemaking Process
The Federal Register
Finalized Regulations and the eCFR
State laws and regulations: a separate challenge

Copyright and Public Access to the Law

The Government Edicts Doctrine

Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org

Incorporation by reference: model codes and private standards

American Society for Testing and Materials v. Public.Resource.Org
UpCodes cases

Do commercial legal publishers face antitrust liability when they exclude competitors from licensing primary legal materials?

Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence

Ramifications for Today and Tomorrow

Governmental and other free websites for accessing statutes and regulations
The impact of open access to legal materials on AI-powered legal research tools

Questions & Answers

Duration of this webinar: 60 minutes

Originally broadcast: September 08, 2023 11:00 AM PT

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Credits

*CLE credit is only available to Justia Connect Pros. Not a Pro? Upgrade today>>

California CLE

Status: Approved

Credits: 1.00 General

Earn Credit Until: September 7, 2025

South Carolina CLE

Status: Approved

Credits: 1.00 General

Difficulty: All Levels

Earn Credit Until: December 31, 2025

North Carolina CLE

Status: Approved

Credits: 1.00 General

Earn Credit Until: February 28, 2026

Texas CLE

Status: Approved

Credits: 1.00 General

Earn Credit Until: January 31, 2026

This presentation is approved for one hour of General CLE credit in California, South Carolina (all levels), and North Carolina. This course has been approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of Texas Committee on MCLE in the amount of 1.00 credit hours.

Justia only reports attendance in jurisdictions in which a particular Justia CLE Webinar is officially accredited. Lawyers may need to self-submit their certificates for CLE credit in jurisdictions not listed above.

Note that CLE credit, including partial credit, cannot be earned outside of the relevant accreditation period. To earn credit for a course, a lawyer must watch the entire course within the relevant accreditation period. Lawyers who have viewed a presentation multiple times may not be able to claim credit in their jurisdiction more than once. Justia reserves the right, at its discretion, to grant an attendee partial or no credit, in accordance with viewing duration and other methods of verifying course completion.

At this time, Justia only offers CLE courses officially accredited in certain states. Lawyers may generate a generic attendance certificate to self-submit credit in their own jurisdiction, but Justia does not guarantee that lawyers will receive their desired CLE credit through the self-submission or reciprocity process.

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Speakers

Sara Frug Co-Director
The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School

Sara Frug is Co-Director of the Legal Information Institute, where she has overseen software engineering initiatives ranging from automated definition extraction for the U.S. Code and CFR, to publication of a comprehensive collection of U.S. state regulations, to linked data for regulated objects. She has been a panelist at the Legislative Data and Transparency Conference and a fellow of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab. Before joining LII, she was a Research Associate at Harvard Business School. She is a graduate of Harvard College.

Craig Newton Co-Director
The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School

Craig Newton is Co-Director of the Legal Information Institute. A member of the California bar, Craig previously represented clients ranging from some of the world’s best-known companies to pro bono litigants in a wide range of civil disputes with a focus on contracts, licenses, patents, and trade secrets. He is a graduate of Cornell Law School and the U.S. Naval Academy.

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