Civil Law

“Solitary Confinement, Human Dignity, and the Eighth Amendment”

The title of this post is the title of this new paper authored by Laura Rovner now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract:

The harms of solitary confinement have been well-documented for centuries, yet the practice persists.  Despite recent efforts to reform the use of solitary confinement in certain states and localities, over 120,000 people are currently confined in solitary conditions in American prisons and jails.  In part, America’s addiction to solitary remains incurable because the doctrine governing whether

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Supreme Court

AI won’t displace human judges, but will affect judiciary, Roberts says in annual report

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In his annual report, Chief Justice John Roberts on Sunday addressed the future of artificial intelligence in the judiciary. Roberts predicted that “human judges will be around for a while,” but he also suggested that “judicial work—particularly at the trial level—will be significantly affected by AI,” and he assured members of the public that committees within the federal judiciary would consider the use of AI in litigation in the federal courts.

Roberts submits the annual report each year on … Read the rest

Civil Law

Business and Human Rights – could the UK adopt mandatory human rights due diligence?

On 28 November 2023, Baroness Young of Hornsey introduced the Commercial Organisations and Public Authorities Duty (Human Rights and Environment) Bill (the “Bill”) to the House of Lords.  If passed, the Bill would introduce mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence (“HREDD”) into UK law.

The description of “reasonable” HREDD set out in the Bill is consistent with the standards set out in the UN Guiding Principles and existing and draft legislation in other jurisdictions (including … Read the rest