Professor Fidler teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, cybersecurity, and copyright. Professor Fidler’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of criminal law, technology, and speech. She is an expert on the Fourth Amendment and changing technology. In broader criminal law, she writes about often overlooked aspects of criminal proceedings, including jury nullification, sentence mitigation, and allocution. Her work also analyzes ways that criminalization intersects with regulation of speech, including on the Internet. She is also an expert on international cybersecurity and cybercrime regulations, with a particular focus on Africa. Outside of criminal law, she also studies the way that legal regimes governing intellectual property, speech, and secrecy intersect.
Professor Fidler received her B.A. with Honors in Science, Technology, and Society from Stanford University and her MPhil in International Relations from Oxford University, where she was a Marshall Scholar. After completing a fellowship at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, she received her JD from Yale Law School, where she was a student director for an impact litigation clinic. After law school, she continued her work in impact litigation as the Technology and First Amendment Fellow with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. She also clerked for The Honorable Robert Bacharach on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. She previously taught at the University of Nebraska College of Law.
Courses Taught
- LCR 905: Criminal Law
- LCR 906: Crim Proced I: Investigation
- LRS 905: Independent Study
- LSK 960: Law Journal Staff
Research Interests
- Criminal Law
- Computer Technology
- Cybercrime
- Free Speech/Freedom of Speech
Selected Publications
Zero Progress on Zero Days: How the Last Ten Years Created the Modern Spyware Market (2024).
Fidler, M., & Hurwitz, G. (2024). Facial Recognition Technology in the United States. In Facial Recognition Technologies: Legal, Social, and Policy Perspectives. Cambridge University Press.
Fidler, M. (2024). African Data Protection Laws: Politics, But as Usual. In African Data Protection Laws Regulation, Policy, and Practice (Vol. 3). De Gruyter.
Fidler, M. (2023). Infrastructure, Law, and Cyber Instability: An African Case Study. In R. Chesney, J. Shires, & M. Smeets (Eds.), Cyberspace and Instability. EUP.
Fidler, M. (2023). Warranted Exclusion: A Case for a Fourth Amendment Built on the Right to Exclude. SMU Law Review, 76(2), 315. doi:10.25172/smulr.76.2.5
Fidler, M. (2021). The New Editors: Refining First Amendment Protections for Internet Platforms. Notre Dame J. on Emerging Tech., 2(2), 241.
Fidler, M. (2020). Local Police Surveillance and the Administrative Fourth Amendment. Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal, 36(5), 481.
Fidler, M. (2020). First Amendment Sentence Mitigation: Beyond a Public Accountability Defense for Whistleblowers. Harvard National Security Journal, 11, 214.
Fidler, M. (2015). Regulating the Zero-Day Vulnerability Trade: A Preliminary Analysis. J.L. & Pol'y for Info. Soc'y, 11, 405.
