2013: Michael W. Carroll

Constitutional Law and Constitutional Values: The Case of Open Access to Research

Michael Carroll is a Professor of Law and Director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of Law. His research and teaching specialties are intellectual property law and cyberlaw, focusing on the search for balance over time in the face of challenges posed by new technologies. He is a founding member of Creative Commons, Inc., a global organization that provides standardized legal and technical tools that enable legal sharing of cultural, educational, scientific and other copyrighted works.

Professor Carroll also is recognized as a leading advocate for open access over the Internet to the research that appears in scholarly and scientific journals. He has written white papers and has given numerous presentations to university faculty, administrators, and staff around the country on this issue. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Public Library of Science and recently completed service on the National Research Council's Board on Research Data and Information. He also is an Academic Fellow of the Center for Democracy and Technology and is a member of the Advisory Board to Public Knowledge.

Prior to entering law teaching, Professor Carroll practiced law at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C. and served as a law clerk to Judge Judith W. Rogers, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and to Judge Joyce Hens Green, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  He received his A.B. (Anthropology), with general honors, from the University of Chicago and his J.D., magna cum laude,from the Georgetown University Law Center.