Deadlines, once established, will be rigorously
enforced (and/or carry substantial penalties). Moreover, rather than have
just one, it seems to me useful to have a number of "mileposts" (as we
say in "GANTT" and "PERT" chart project management language). What follows
are my proposals for now. I am willing to modify them -- if the class unanimously
agrees on what it wants them to be sufficiently prior to the milepost in
question.
Categories, topics and narrowing: in general.
Definitions:
A "category" would be, for example, something like
"privacy on the Internet." Within the category of "privacy" might be
topics associated with information exchanged during
the course of sales over the Internet.
Those topics might be further narrowed by focusing
on sales involving credit cards – or, even, specifically VISA.
And those topics might be further narrowed by specifying
a particular piece of information that is collected during these transactions,
or a particular system for recording (and possibly
selling) that information, or a sub-section of some statute/regulation
involving such transactions.
Suggestions:
Pick a topic within a category that is contained within
an area of law, or law school course, with which you already have some
background. For example, if you have not had antitrust, or any experience
with antitrust law and doctrines, you are putting an enormous burden on
yourself in this seminar if you are -- necessarily and simultaneously --
trying to master some area of law about which you know nothing in addition
to trying to learn your area of "cyberspace law." Obviously, you
are not forbidden to do this; just know what you’re getting in for before
you do it.
The reasons to narrow your topic are not only to simplify
and focus your task ("work smarter, not harder"), but also to increase
the likelihood that you will end up producing a Web-published paper that
will make a genuine contribution to the body of legal literature. (Not
incidentally, of course, this also reflects more favorably on you when
others read it.) The topic should be sufficiently narrow that you end up
being, if not the only, at least one of a very small handful of lawyers
who know more about your subject than anyone else on earth.
Categories, topics and narrowing: the deadlines.
Topics. I have been, and will be, available to you
to help you think through the selection of categories, possible
topics, and how to narrow them appropriately. However, the primary responsibility
is, of course, yours. This process will, almost always in my experience,
take more than a single one-on-one office conference or e-mail exchange.
Because most of you have not yet begun this discussion with me, I am now
setting Monday, February 8 at 4:00 p.m. as the final deadline for
your having concluded this process, settled on a sufficiently narrowed
topic, and turned it in to Rita Jansen, Room 405, before she leaves that
day.
The next two weeks -- February 9-February 22 -- will
require a little more investment of time on your part than the first weeks
of the seminar. During this two week period you should have done enough
of your initial research that you are able to hold a conference with
me during the week of February 22nd to discuss how your topic/paper/research
is shaping up, and present to me (or leave with Rita Jansen) no later than
Monday, March 1 at 4:00 p.m. either [1] a detailed (at least three-level)
outline of how you propose to organize your paper, or (if your hatred of
outlines is so severe that they interfere with your doing your best work),
[2] a rough draft of your paper [with the possibility of a -- very limited
-- option of indicating, within brackets, what will be inserted where there
are brief omissions]. This will give us some additional time for
Conferences March 2-5 designed to enable you to get
me committed to the general approach you are taking at this stage.
First draft preparation, additional research. You
will have from March 1 until whenever you leave for spring break,
but in no event later than March 12th at 12:00 noon (spring break
is March 13-21) to do the additional research and writing necessary to
prepare your formal "first final draft." The reason I pick this deadline
is to insure that [1] either you get the much-needed spring break recess,
or, if you do have other work to catch up on during that week, at least
I am not contributing even more to it, and [2] I have a free week (I don't
take spring break) during which I can do some attentive, detailed reading,
editing, and grading of your first drafts, without outside distractions,
in time to enable you to have the necessary time to prepare final, final
drafts.
Final draft preparation, additional research and writing.
On the assumption we can hold one-on-one conferences the week of March
22-26 to discuss the necessary additional research, writing, organization,
proof reading, and rewriting on your papers, this will leave you a little
over two weeks to do that work.
The deadline for the final draft will be April 16 at 4:00
p.m. The reason for selecting this deadline, similar to the reason
for the deadline before spring break week, is to give you an extra week
-- at least one without additional burdens associated with this seminar
-- to finish up your outlines and otherwise prepare for the beginning of
final exam week April 28. (On April 21 -- our last class session -- we
will either/or both have a dinner at my house, or additional presentations
of participants' papers.)
Presentations. Individuals' oral presentations will
be scheduled (with advance notice) but not at this time. As you can see
from the schedule just outlined, and the number of seminar participants,
final drafts will not be finished in time for everyone to base her/his
presentation on a final written draft. Thus, the earlier presentations
necessarily will be on a somewhat more informal, "work in progress" basis.
With 14 participants, and a half-hour presentation each, we would devote
March 24 and 31, and April 7 and 14 to your presentations. If we
added March 10 (March 17 is spring break), everyone could have 40 minutes,
which would be preferable.