Abstract This paper discusses models of law and regulation of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”). The discussion focuses on four models: the black letter model, the emergent model, the ethical model, and the risk regulation model. All four models currently inform, individually or jointly, integrally or partially, consciously or unconsciously, law and regulatory reform towards AI. We…
Moving Ahead: Finding Opportunities for Transactional Training in Remote Legal Education
Abstract This article builds on the many calls for teaching business acumen and transactional skills in law school with a timely insight: the shift to remote legal education creates opportunities to do so, in particular by incorporating practice problems and mini-simulations in doctrinal courses. Weaving together the literature on emerging best practices in online legal…
RegTech and Predictive Lawmaking: Closing the RegLag between Prospective Regulated Activity and Regulation
Abstract Regulation chronically suffers significant delay starting at the detectable initiation of a “regulable activity” and culminating at effective regulatory response. Regulator reaction is impeded by various impediments: (i) confusion in optimal level, form and choice of regulatory agency, (ii) political resistance to creating new regulatory agencies, (iii) lack of statutory authorization to address particular…
Structuring Techlaw
Abstract Technological breakthroughs challenge core legal assumptions and generate regulatory debates. Practitioners and scholars usually tackle these questions by examining the impacts of a particular technology within conventional legal subjects — say, by considering how drones should be regulated under privacy law, property law, or the law of armed conflict. While individually useful, these siloed analyses mask the repetitive…
Lawyer Regulation in Kiribati
Abstract The Kiribati legal profession developed slowly from 1980 to 1997 and grew rapidly following the establishment of the University of the South Pacific (USP) School of Law. The legal profession in Kiribati may be described as a nascent or proto-profession. While it demonstrates some features of a profession, such as maintaining a monopoly over specialised knowledge and being…
The Place of Non-Advocate Lawyers in Legal Practice in Kenya
Abstract This study observes that Kenya has for a while witnessed an incessant surge in the number of unqualified legal practitioners. The study attributed the same to non-advocate lawyers masquerading as competent advocates. In assessing this, the study determines what legal practice entails and whether rendering legal advice constitutes legal practice. The study then outlines the significance of the jealously monopolistic regulation of the legal profession by…
The Anatomy of Consumer Legal Funding
Abstract Litigant Third-Party Funding (LTPF), where financial companies advance money on a non-recourse basis to individual plaintiffs, is a growing and increasingly controversial industry in the U.S. This funding made headlines during the NFL concussion litigation with more than 1,000 players reported to have received such advances and with class counsel raising concerns of “predatory…
AI and Dispute Resolution
Abstract The office of a judge is nowadays an indispensable part of the system of governance. However, this does not mean that the legal regulation of this area is optimal and this area does not pose any challenges for lawyers. Moreover, there is no general consensus on how state power, including that of the courts, should be exercised….
Legal Education in the Era of COVID-19: Putting Health, Safety and Equity First
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the traditional academic model of gathering people into physical classes into a high-risk activity. Legal education is a Critical Infrastructure sector that supports democratic access to the legal system and trains students to become ethical members of the legal profession and society. Debates about whether legal education should be…
Measuring Lawyer Well-Being Systematically: Evidence from the National Health Interview Survey
Abstract Conventional wisdom says that lawyers are uniquely unhappy. Unfortunately, this conventional wisdom rests on a weak empirical foundation. The “unhappy lawyers” narrative relies on nonrandom survey data collected from volunteer respondents. Instead of depending on such data, researchers should study lawyer mental health by relying on large microdata sets of public health data, such…