Nina Varsava

Assistant Professor of Law

Varsava, Nina

Contact

nvarsava@wisc.edu
608-265-9498
Room 8105, Law School

PDF Icon Curriculum Vitae

Education

J.D., Yale Law School
Ph.D, Stanford University
M.A., University of British Columbia
B.A., University of Alberta

Biography

Nina Varsava’s research focuses on procedure, courts, judicial administration, ethics, and jurisprudence. She is especially interested in issues of precedent, interpretation, and intersystemic adjudication. She teaches courses on civil procedure, professional responsibility, and jurisprudence.

Varsava’s recent scholarship is forthcoming or has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, the Yale Journal of Law and Humanities, and the NYU Law Review Online, among others. Her scholarship has been covered by media outlets such as the The New York Times and the American Bar Association Journal, and has been cited by both federal and state courts.

Following law school, Varsava served as a Judicial Law Clerk for the Supreme Court of Colorado.

Varsava is on pre-tenure research leave in Fall 2022.

Scholarship & Publications

SSRN

Law Repository

Research Interests

  • Legal Theory
  • Procedural Justice
  • Law and Language
  • Judges and Courts
  • Legal Ethics
  • Bioethics and Health Law

Activities

  • Nina Varsava presented "Stare Decisis After Dobbs" during the 2022 Wisconsin Law Review Symposium–Controlling the Supreme Court: Now and "Far into the Future"–on Oct. 29, 2022.

  • Nina Varsava presented "The Gender and Racial Composition of Federal Appellate Panels" during the Midwest Law and Economics Association Annual Meeting held at the University of Chicago Law School on Oct. 15, 2022.

  • Nina Varsava gave an invited talk on the Dobbs decision, stare decisis and reliance interests at the American Association of Legal and Social Philosophy Biannual Meeting on Oct. 8, 2022.

  • Nina Varsava presented "Derivative Recognition and Intersystemic Interpretation" at the University of Surrey Centre for Law and Philosophy on Sept. 21, 2022. The paper is about statutory interpretation in the intersystemic context, focusing on U.S. federal courts interpreting state statutes.

  • Nina Varsava presented "The Gender and Racial Composition of Federal Appellate Panels" during the American Law and Economics Association Annual Meeting on Aug. 4, 2022.

  • Nina Varsava presented "The Gender and Racial Composition of Federal Appellate Panels" during an online workshop on the computational analysis of law on Sept. 6, 2022.

  • Nina Varsava presented "Derivative Recognition and Intersystemic Interpretation" during the Association of American Law Schools Jurisprudence Section Workshop on Aug. 12, 2022.

  • Nina Varsava presented "Derivative Recognition and Intersystemic Interpretation" during the UK-IVR Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy Annual Conference on June 10, 2022.

  • Nina Varsava posted a new article, "Reliance," to SSRN. The article explores the Supreme Court's stare decisis jurisprudence in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, and in particular its approach to the issue of reliance on precedent. Read the article. 

  • Are doctrines of precedent intersystemically binding? Nina Varsava explores this topic in the federal-state context, explaining how the answer depends on our theory of law, in an article in the Notre Dame Law Review, now available on SSRN. Read the article. 

  • Nina Varsava published a draft of "The Gravitational Force of Future Decisions" to SSRN. Read the abstract and download the paper. 

  • Nina Varsava's article "The Role of Dissents in the Formation of Precedent" was cited by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana & Kentucky, Inc. The majority opinion grapples with the precedential effect of the Supreme Court's fractured abortion decision in June Medical.

  • Nina Varsava presented "Opinion Publication and Judge Gender at the Federal Courts of Appeals" at the Texas A&M Law School Faculty Workshop and the William & Mary Law School Faculty Workshop in January.

  • Nina Varsava presented “Opinion Publication and Judge Gender at the Federal Courts of Appeals” at the Computational Analysis of Law Workshop in January 2021.

  • Nina Varsava presented “Non-Consensual Warnings” as part of the New Voices in Law, Medicine and Healthcare series at the AALS Annual Meeting in January 2021.

Teaching Areas

  • Civil Procedure
  • Conflict of Laws
  • Ethics & Professional Responsibilities
  • Federal Jurisdiction
  • Jurisprudence

Recently Taught Courses

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