Writing groups provide an opportunity for faculty and students to engage in a collaborative experience in which students learn from one another as well as their professor. The groups for academic year 2022-2023 will be offered in Fall 2022, Spring 2023, across the Fall 2022 and Winter 2023 terms (Fall-Winter), and across the full year (Fall-Spring). The list of faculty offering writing groups in 2022-2023, along with their corresponding topics, is below.
Participation in a writing group requires enrollment in a two or three credits of independent written work supervised by the writing group faculty member. Groups require a minimum of four students and are limited to a maximum of eight students. Students enrolled in a Writing Group will receive one classroom credit (the full year group will be reflected in the spring; the fall-winter group will be reflected in the fall) and will be graded on the Credit/Fail grading scale. The corresponding writing project will be graded under the regular HLS scale in the manner ordinary for written work. For participation in the writing group, students must be registered in written work for a minimum of two writing credits. Groups are expected to meet for twelve hours of instructional time over the course of the year (for Fall-Spring groups) or the semester (for Fall or Spring groups). The meeting schedule for each writing group will be determined after enrollment is finalized.
Eligibility
Writing groups are open to upper-level J.D. and LL.M. students committed to writing a two-credit or three-credit paper in accordance with the written work requirement applicable to their degree program as outlined in Section I(K) and Section II(A)(6) of the Handbook of Academic Policies for J.D. and LL.M. students respectively. Papers must align with the topic the writing group is focused on and students should be prepared to make a firm commitment to joining a writing group.
Enrollment
Students interested in joining a writing group should discuss a paper topic in advance with the professor offering the group most closely related to their area of study. Enrollment into the writing group classroom component will be on a by-permission basis.
- Students enrolling in a Writing Group offering are required to submit a signed Writing Group Registration Form to the Registrar’s Office by the following deadlines:
- FALL TERM and FALL-WINTER – Monday, September 12, 2022
- FULL YEAR (Fall/Spring) – Friday, October 14, 2022
- SPRING TERM – Friday, February 3, 2023
- Writing credits can be placed in the fall, winter, or spring terms, while the group classroom credit will be placed in the fall term for fall only and fall-winter offerings, or spring term for the full year and spring only offerings.
- Students should ensure that there is space in their schedule for these credits, keeping in mind that the fall and spring term credit maximum for JD students is sixteen credits each term; the fall and spring credit maximum for LL.M students is thirteen and twelve credits, respectively; and in the winter term, all students are limited to a single enrollment of two or three credits.
*Note the deadlines for Writing Groups are earlier than the published deadlines for J.D. and LL.M. written work.
| First Name | Last Name | Writing Group Title | Term |
| Matthew | Stephenson | Writing Group: Administrative Law, Legislation, and Statutory Interpretation | Fall Term |
| William | Alford | Writing Group: Comparative Law, International Law, or Legal History Involving East Asia | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Chris | Bavitz | Writing Group: Technology Law and Policy | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Gabriella | Blum | Writing Group: Public International Law and International Conflict Management | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Niko | Bowie | Writing Group: How Does Change Happen? | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Molly | Brady | Writing Group: Property, Land Use, and Local Government | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Thomas | Brennan | Writing Group: Taxation | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Glenn | Cohen | Writing Group: Health Law/Bioethics/Pharmaceuticals and the Law | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Ryan | Doerfler | Writing Group: The Role of Courts/Theories of Interpretation | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Susan | Farbstein | Writing Group: Human Rights | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Michael | Gregory | Writing Group: Children’s Law and Policy | Fall/Spring Terms |
| James | Greiner | Writing Group: Empirical Legal Studies | Spring Term |
| James | Greiner | Writing Group: Trial courts: criminal justice reform and civil access to justice | Spring Term |
| Jon | Hanson | Writing Group: The Problem of Corporate Power | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Howell | Jackson | Writing Group: Financial Regulation, Consumer Financial Protection, and Federal Budget Policy | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Elizabeth | Kamali | Writing Group: Legal History | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Naz | Modirzadeh | Writing Group: Public International Law; International Law and Armed Conflict; International Law and War | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Ruth | Okediji | Writing Group: Artificial Intelligence and Law | Spring Term |
| Stephen | Sachs | Writing Group: The Original Constitution | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Carol | Steiker | Writing Group: Criminal Law, Procedure, and Policy | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Kristen | Stilt | Writing Group: Law and the Anthropocene: ways in which law is part of the problem or part of the solution in our planetary crisis; topics might focus on animal law; environmental law; human rights law (including migration due to climate change); food law; and any other related topic | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Rebecca | Tushnet | Writing Group: Intellectual Property and Content Moderation | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Mark | Wu | Writing Group: International Trade, Sanctions and/or Economic Statecraft | Fall/Spring Terms |
| Scott | Brewer | Writing Group: Jurisprudence/Philosophy of Law | Spring Term |
| Susan | Crawford | Writing Group: Climate-related topics including adaptation and mitigation | Spring Term |
| Ben | Eidelson | Writing Group: Law and Philosophy | Spring Term |
| Jacob | Gersen | Writing Group: Problems in Public Law | Spring Term |
| Jeannie Suk | Gersen | Writing Group: Topics in Criminal Law, Due Process, Equal Protection, Family Law, Sexual Harassment, Sexuality, Title IX | Spring Term |
| Janet | Halley | Writing Group: Isaac Royall, Jr. and Belinda Sutton in the Archive | Spring Term |
| David | Kennedy | Writing Group: Critical Legal Theory/Political Economy | Spring Term |
| Chris | Lewis | Writing Group: Inequality, Justice, and the Criminal Legal System | Spring Term |
| Lucie | White | Writing Group: Africanist Perspectives on Economic Development | Spring Term |