Oil companies may seem invincible, but they are more vulnerable than you think, says climate justice litigator Melinda Janki. She tells the story of how she took on ExxonMobil in her home country of Guyana, notching historic wins against...

If you can't respect the basic fundamental underlying principles with which we order society — which is 'Do not steal' — then what are you left with? asks investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr. Following her TED2025 talk, Cadwalladr...

The clock is ticking on social media giant TikTok, which faces a nationwide ban in the United States unless its parent company, ByteDance, sells it by January 19. Social media theorist Clay Shirky unpacks why the US is trying to ban...

It might sound like the plot of a movie, but economic crime is all around us — from drug trafficking and fraud to cybercrimes, tax evasion and more. Economic crime fighter Hanjo Seibert breaks down the complexities of money laundering...

Can AI help catch oceanic outlaws? From drug smugglers to modern-day pirates, maritime crime fighter Dyhia Belhabib introduces Heva: an AI-powered tool that aggregates international criminal records to detect and stop crime that might...

Since 2015, an unprecedented movement has been sweeping courts around the world. Groups of young plaintiffs are suing their governments for their inaction on tackling climate change. These suits argue that climate inaction violates their...

How do we defend people's freedom and dignity against authoritarianism, when the "law of war" doesn't seem to apply anymore? In the face of the Russian occupation of Ukraine, human rights lawyer and Nobel laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk...

Hank has some thoughts on the news that several Italian scientists who were convicted of 29 counts manslaughter for making an "inadequate risk-assessment" before an earthquake.

More than 30 million people in the US are eligible to have their arrest and conviction records cleared -- but most people who qualify either can't afford it or simply don't know it's an option. In this gripping talk, second chance...

Lawyers are advocates for their clients -- and, in court, they're usually the ones who do the talking. Should that always be the case? In an effort to shift this power dynamic, TED Fellow and legal aid activist Lam Ho shares how lawyers...

Televising Juries

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that applying the death penalty to <br/>
offenders under the age of 18 is unconstitutionally cruel, <br/>ending the
practice nationwide.

Cornelius Dupree was sentenced to 75 years in prison after being convicted

of rape and robbery at age 19 in 1980. After 30 years behind bars, new
DNA
testing proved his innocence and a Texas judge overturned the c
onviction...

Paul Andersen teams up with Keith Hughes to explain why teaching evolution is not optional for high school biology teachers.

The secret to winning an argument isn't grand rhetoric or elegant style, says US Supreme Court litigator Neal Katyal -- it takes more than that. With stories of some of the most impactful cases he's argued before the Court, Katyal shows...

Mass surveillance is worse than you think, but the solutions are simpler than you realize, says lawyer, technologist and TED Fellow Albert Fox Cahn. Breaking down the crude tactics law enforcement uses to sweep up massive amounts of data...

Community organizer Raj Jayadev wants to transform the US court system through "participatory defense" -- a growing movement that empowers families and community members to impact their loved ones' court cases. He shares the remarkable...

A decade ago, uS law said human genes were patentable -- which meant patent holders had the right to stop anyone from sequencing, testing or even looking at a patented gene. Troubled by the way this law both harmed patients and created a...

Social entrepreneur Julie Cordua works on a problem that isn't easy to talk about: the sexual abuse of children in images and videos on the internet. At Thorn, she's building technology to connect the dots between the tech industry, law...

After a surprise appearance by Edward Snowden at TED2014, Chris Anderson said: "If the NSA wants to respond, please do." And yes, they did. Appearing by video, NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett answers Anderson's questions about the...

William Black is a former bank regulator who’s seen firsthand how banking systems can be used to commit fraud — and how “liar's loans” and other tricky tactics led to the 2008 US banking crisis that threatened the international economy....

The United States can create a more humane immigration system; in fact, it's been done before, says policy analyst David J. Bier. Pointing to the historical success of the US guest worker program, which allows foreign workers to legally...

For the nearly 20 million Americans with a felony record, punishment doesn't end after their prison sentence. Sociologist Reuben Jonathan Miller sheds light on the aftershocks of mass incarceration through the stories of people who've...

Imagine seeking safety abroad and instead being detained and forced to defend yourself in a high-stakes legal battle — alone. Law professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández explains how the asylum process in the US became warped into...