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Abstract:
Following World War II, the German philosopher Martin Heidegger offered one of the most potent criticisms of technology and modern life. His nightmare is a world whose essence has been reduced to the functional equivalent of a giant gasoline station, an energy source for modern technology and industry. "This relation of man to the world [is] in principle a technical one . . . [It is] altogether alien to former ages and histories. For Heidegger, the problem is not technology itself, but the technical mode of thinking that has accompanied it." Such a viewpoint of the world is a useful paradigm to consider humanity's relationship to law in the current information environment, which is increasingly technical in Heidegger's sense of the term.

Heidegger's warning that a technical approach to thinking about the world obscures its true essence is directly applicable to the effects of current (as well as former) information technologies that provide access to law. While technology enhances accessibility and utility of law, technology also obscures law's fundamental grounding in experience and language, thereby eviscerating its transformative power. The paper explains the nature of Heidegger's criticisms of technology and modern life and examines the appropriateness of their application to the current information environment, especially in light of Heidegger's early affiliation with Nazism and his subsequent denunciation of technologicism and technological thinking. The paper applies Heidegger's criticisms to the modern legal information environment with particular reference to application of technology to subjugate the law to the status of an information resource devoted to various ends. Finally, the paper considers the implications for law librarianship in the current information environment.

Law Librarianship, Law Libraries, Information Technology, Legal Information, Heidegger, Philosophy

Abstract:
As the Internet has gained prevalence, attention has turned to its regulation. Indeed, regulation proves to be a unique and complex problem, given the Internet's lack of traditional borders and boundaries. Highlighting possible avenues of regulation, the author discusses neo-classical economic theory, specifically Monroe E. Price's market for loyalties theory. Although originally applied to the regulation of broadcasting, the author contends that the market for loyalties theory can also be applied to the Internet. Building on Professor Price's pioneering analysis, the article extends the theory to examine market elasticity's effect on the loss of monopoly control over information flow (as a result of the Internet).

Because the fundamental nature of information defies traditional legal and economic models, regulation of the Internet is problematic. In addition, the sheer scale, social aspects, and functional design of the Internet itself make effective regulation difficult. Governments are also faced with the dilemma of limiting Internet access while still leveraging its economic benefits. Nonetheless, governments have attempted to regulate the Internet through content filtering, Internet surveillance, and self-policing.

By applying the market for loyalties theory, the article analyzes the behavior of states in regulating transborder information flow and predicts the consequences of unsuccessful regulation. After summarizing the theory and setting forth its elements, the author explores the relationship of exchange between identity and the competition for loyalty and identifies factors which destabilize the status quo (in terms of diminished loyalty). Indeed, in the interest of self-preservation, the government asserts monopoly power over the market for loyalties. Thus, regulatory schemes change when the balance of power shifts, or when existing regulation proves inadequate to maintain the status quo.
By comparing the efficiency of two different markets, citing Singapore and China, and considering the role of elasticity in each market, the article details the possible ramifications of a loss of monopoly control for each market. Because elasticity is a function of the prior penetration into the market of competing products (or identities), the author concludes that the most restrictive regimes face the greatest turmoil (as expressed in decline in loyalty resulting from increased competition).

Internet, China, Singapore, Market for Loyalties, Information Economics, Information Environment, Media, Monopolies, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press

Abstract:
The paper (I) outlines the nature and extent of the dissatisfaction with legal research instruction and demonstrates that the problem predates computer-assisted legal research, (II) presents the history of the debate (focusing on a heated exchange between advocates of a "process-oriented" approach and proponents of the traditional, "bibliographic" methods), and (III) presents the requisite elements of a satisfactory pedagogical model, discussing various issues surrounding each of these elements.

In part III, the paper proposes that a complete pedagogical model requires (A) an identifiable and fully understood objective in teaching legal research (which objective must distinguish between the kinds of research done by attorneys, scholars, and librarians), (B) a theory and understanding of the nature of legal source materials, (C) a theory of mathetics, or the nature of students and how they learn (with emphasis upon the provision of conceptual models for internalizing research techniques), and (D) a methodology consistent with the previous elements. Besides proposing the elements of the pedagogical model, this paper will explore the subtle issues surrounding each element (including examples of frameworks selected by the author), concluding that an appropriate pedagogical model has to be designed based upon the particular circumstances and needs of each law school.

legal research, education, teaching, pedagogy, instruction

Abstract:
For so long as it has been important to know what the law is, the practice of law has been an information profession. Nonetheless, just how the information ecosphere affects legal discourse and thinking has never been systematically studied. Legal scholars study how law attempts to regulate information flow, but they say little about how information limits, shapes, and provides a medium for law to operate.

Part I of the paper introduces a holistic approach to medium theory - the idea that methods of communication influence social development and ideology - and applies the theory to the development of legal thinking and institutions. Part II examines select historic and pre-historic cultures that emphasize different media for conducting legal affairs - stone stelae, clay tablets, papyrus, and oral verse.

In concluding, the paper relies upon Heidegger's criticism of technological thinking. In the case of modern society, the legal environment and our conception of the past are limited by technological thinking (i.e., the reduction of all things as resources to be mastered and used toward some end). However, the challenge is to see, by studying past information ecospheres, the current boundaries of law's box and then to imagine what may lie beyond them.

The UMKC selection committee for the Brenner Faculty Publishing Award unanimously designated the article from law faculty publications for 2005-2006 as the recipient of award.

legal history, jurisprudence, media theory, law, infosphere, information environment, information ecosphere, Heidegger, writing, technology, legal theory

Abstract:
When monopoly control over the flow of information is lost, the unavoidable consequence is destabilization. Information flow through a society can be understood as a market - not a market exchanging cash for goods, but loyalty for identity. Hence the market is called the Market for Loyalties - so labeled by an economics of information theory first developed by Prof. Monroe Price, of Cardozo Law School, and Director of the Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media and Society, to explain government regulation of radio, TV, cable and satellite broadcasting.

In post-invasion Iraq, Saddam Hussein lost or monopoly control over the information market, where loyalty and identity were exchanged. The consequence was the plummeting of loyalty that the former regime could command in exchange for its marketed form of identity. The result of the sudden opening of the market is chaotic and violent. New suppliers of identity hawk wares so potent, that the consumer's loyalty extends to martyrdom in the form of suicide bombing (all for a few moments of temporal fame, and bright prospects of rewards in eternity). The current market for loyalties in Iraq is complicated by an additional characteristic - the impact of tribal structures to limit the number of effective buyers in the marketplace. Tribes function as brokers, restricting, the presence of competing buyers and functioning as resellers of identity in the marketplace.

The dilemma for the United States is what to do about the new information market in Iraq - to clamp down and re-exert monopoly control, to stand back, laissez-faire-like, and let the market take its natural course, or to somehow manage the slide to equilibrium by carefully eliminating barriers and engineering the emergence of competitors in the market. This article will first present the theoretical underpinning of the market for loyalties in terms of neoclassical economics, emphasizing the importance of identity in this market. In so doing it will apply the theory to understanding many of the instabilities in Iraq and the Middle East. Second, the article suggests implications of the market for loyalties for U.S. policy. The article concludes that despite consideration of tribal intermediation of the information market, which must and can be addressed, US policy is not to win Iraqi loyalty by promulgating its own particular message of identity, but the creation and maintenance of an open and pluralistic market for loyalties within Iraq's information environment. In such a market, diverse identities are sufficiently numerous to insulate the market from potential disruption caused by provocative messages hawked by radical and violent groups. In essence, this Article presents an argument for freedom of speech and information flow based upon market for loyalties theory.

Civil Rights, Law and Economics, Law and Society, Market for Loyalties Theory, Information Environment, Iraq, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Information

Abstract:
Actualization of the rule of law necessitates more than the enumeration of individual rights and the careful articulation of divided powers, but the presence of an information or media environment conducive to such rule. Specifically, in the case of seventeenth-century England, it is the ascendancy of the printed book, as characteristic of the information environment, that effectively establishes a limitation on royal power.

The article applies geopolitical, temporal, and technological factors of media theory to seventeenth-century England in order to understand the effects of the information environment upon legal institutions and government. It considers factors such as the textuality of the reign of King James I, effusive spread of printing throughout Europe, smuggling of political and religious texts from overseas, citation to a much broader base of textual of authority, and developments in stabilized texts and cross-referencing to create a web of authority. Each of these factors affected the development and independent standing of legal and authoritative works, such as Lord Edward Coke's Institutes, the English Bible, and political tracts. In turn, the influence of such works on legal and political developments curtailed absolute monarchy and led to the onset of roles for public opinion and political discourse.

A presentation, based upon this paper, was originally made at the 5th International Conference of the Book, Madrid, Spain (Oct. 2007).

seventeenth century, Bible, Edward Coke, information environment, censorship, pamphlet war, law books, printing, James I, media theory, rule of law, royal power, absolute monarchy

Abstract:
Within law librarianship and legal education, there has been far too little scholarly engagement on the underlying pedagogy at the heart of legal research instruction. To correct this deficiency, law librarianship needs to open a dialogue and should consider adapting Bloom’s Taxonomy as a common schema for a collaborative effort.

This paper was initially presented at the "Conference on Legal Information: Scholarship and Teaching," held at the University of Colorado Law School on June 21-22, 2009, as part of its Boulder Summer Conference Series. It follows the author's own recently published challenge to law librarianship and legal research instructors to create a Bloom’s taxonomy for legal research education. See Paul D. Callister, Thinking Like a Research Expert: Schemata for Teaching Complex Problem-Solving Skills, 28 LEGAL REFERENCE SERVICES Q. 31, 48-49 (2009) (also available on SSRN).

legal research, pedagogy, Bloom's Taxonomy

Abstract:
The difference between expert and novice problem-solvers is that experts have organized their thinking into schemata or mental constructs to both see and solve problems. This article demonstrates why schemata are important, arguing that schemata need to be made explicit in the classroom. It illustrates the use of schemata to understand and categorize complex research problems, map the terrain of legal research resources, match appropriate resources to types of problems, and work through the legal research process. The article concludes by calling upon librarians and research instructors to produce additional schemata and develop a common hierarchical taxonomy of skills, a “Bloom’s Taxonomy,” which would define problem-solving skills more precisely and set benchmarks for assessment.

legal research, instruction, education, problem-solving, skills, schemata, schema, pedagogy