Scoping Paper

The purpose of the scoping paper is to ensure that you're on the right track. We'll give you feedback on direction, scope, e.g., ultimate outcome, and references.

What should be in the paper when you turn it in:

• A detailed description of your goal and your argument
• Two semi-independent sections, on the legal aspects and on the technological aspects
• Primary references: cases, statutes, technologies

Don't worry about:

• Formatting
• Detailed explanations of the cases, statutes, or technologies

For example, suppose you were writing a paper on today's topic, encryption policy. What is your legal focus? The First Amendment issues? The Fourth Amendment issues? The All Writs Act? The legality of hacking instead?  The Fourth Amendment issues? What cases do you cite? If you're looking at the First Amendment, you would need to cite Bernstein, Junger, and Corley, at a minimum. For the Fourth Amendment issues, depending on your argument, you’d probably want to cite Kyllo, Carpenter, and cases discussing you may have to reach back to general warrants during the colonial period. The technical aspects might include the Clipper chip or lawful hacking.

We're looking for about 2000 words. No, we're not going to count. But we need to see enough to be able to give you proper feedback.