The Public's Right of Access to Court Proceedings

On May 10, 2024, "The Public's Right of Access to Court Proceedings: Power, Practice, and Promise" will bring together lawyers, academics, students, journalists, and activists for an event exploring the public’s right of access to court records, transcripts, trial exhibits, and other materials, with a focus on civil litigation and technology law cases.

Technology plays a large and growing role in our economy, politics, and society. Yet tech companies sometimes shield information on their technologies and business practices from public view. An important avenue to understanding technologies, technology companies, and the development of technology law is through courts’ litigation dockets—that is, through court records, transcripts, and other materials that capture the evidence and arguments that animate litigation.

This event will bring together leading thinkers, advocates, reporters, and watchdogs to share information and tools. Event speakers will discuss the many opportunities and challenges with using litigation dockets to understand technology and technology law. The event will explore the procedural rules for sealing secret information, the limits of transparency, and proper bases for secrecy, and investigate potential reforms to secrecy practices in civil litigation, including a potential Federal Rule of Civil Procedure on sealing.

This event is hosted by the Columbia Law School Program on Science, Technology, and Intellectual Property Law and the Columbia Law School Science, Health, and Information Clinic. It is co-sponsored by the Public Interest Patent Law Institute and the Knight Institute.