The Shadow Docket: Precedent and American Exceptionalism?

This seminar is hosted by the Centre for American Legal Studies and the School of Law Research Seminar Series. Our series offers exciting insights into ongoing research projects within the law school and conducted by our external research partners. We often feature work from our research centres (the Centre for American Legal Studies, the Centre for Human Rights, the Centre for Science, Law and Policy, and the International Business Law Research Group). Our work is often transdisciplinary, dealing with law's relationship with broadly defined social justice, policy-making, science and much more. Join us for invigorating discussion!  

In this session, we hear from Thomas Kidney. Tom is an Assistant Lecturer / Teaching Fellow and will commence pupillage in October 2022. Tom maintains a keen interest in Administrative Law, with a particular focus on the political and constitutional role of the UK and US Supreme Courts. He has published a comparative piece on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (UKSC) and the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). He is currently researching an article on the resurgence of textualism/originalism at SCOTUS.  He is also examining the Court’s ever growing ‘Shadow Docket’ and the granting of interim relief by SCOTUS. He is also keeping one eye on proposals to reform Judicial Review in the UK. 

In this session, Mr Kidney will give the following presentation, followed by an interactive Q&A:

The Shadow Docket: Precedent and American Exceptionalism?

Paul the Octopus correctly predicted 12 out of 14 of the fixtures in 2010 World Cup and chose the ultimate winners of the tournament. Like Paul, the so called ‘Shadow Docket’ of the US Supreme Court has grown tentacles so broad that it almost touches on all aspects of its jurisprudence – abortion, covid-19 restrictions, and Voting Rights (to name three).  

The aim of this talk is to examine the Court’s ever expanding Shadow Docket and the threats that it places to long established precedents. It will also consider the uniqueness of the Shadow Docket and the challenges that the Shadow Docket poses to SCOTUS and administrative justice more widely.

If you have any questions, contact Iyan Offor, the Research Seminar Series leader, at iyan.offor@bcu.ac.uk.

This seminar has now concluded but it is available on demand here. If you find that you do not have access, you can email the research seminar series leader at iyan.offor@bcu.ac.uk in order to gain access.