In an age of constant, complex and disruptive technological innovation, knowing what, when, and how to structure regulatory interventions has become more difficult. Regulators find themselves in a situation where they believe they must opt for either reckless action (regulation without sufficient facts) or paralysis (doing nothing). Inevitably in such a case, caution tends to…
Regulation by blockchain: the emerging battle for supremacy between the Code of Law and Code as Law
Many advocates of distributed ledger technologies (including blockchain) claim that these technologies provide the foundations for an organisational form that will enable individuals to transact with each other free from the travails of conventional law, thus offering the promise of grassroots democratic governance without the need for third party intermediaries. But does the assumption that…
Online and Automated Dispute Resolution in New Zealand: A Law Reform and Regulation Perspective
This paper investigates the issue of online and automated dispute resolution from a law reform and regulatory perspective. It argues the growing prevalence and capabilities of online dispute resolution has created both opportunities and risks for consumers and for dispute resolution policy in New Zealand. In particular, the significant risk of harm occurring if the…
Regulating Bot Speech
Abstract: We live in a world of artificial speakers with real impact. Chat bots befriend children in order to acquire marketing data. Robotic telemarketers laugh at the suggestion that they are not real. Russian social media bots foment sufficient political strife to merit a spotlight in Congressional hearings. Concerns over bot speech have led prominent…
Legal Deserts: a Multi-State Perspective on Rural Access to Justice
Abstract: Rural America faces an increasingly dire access to justice crisis, which serves to exacerbate the already disproportionate share of social problems afflicting rural areas. One critical aspect of that crisis is the dearth of information and research regarding the extent of the problem and its impacts. This article begins to address that gap by…
The Legal Profession in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Since the 1979 Revolution, the clerical regime in Iran has been limiting the legal profession’s autonomy by preventing members of the Iranian Bar Association (IBA) from freely electing their Board of Directors and by establishing a new body of lawyers — legal advisors of the judiciary — to contest the IBA’s professional monopoly. Clerics have…
Encouraging the Development of ‘Low Bono’ Law Practices
For decades, the discussion about access to justice has primarily focused on the ability of low–income individuals to obtain free representation by lawyers. Lawyer representation is the “gold star” of the legal profession and advocates of legal services for the poor have fought difficult battles to ensure the most disadvantaged in our country have access…
Acts Like a Lawyer, Talks Like a Lawyer…Non-Lawyer Advocates Representing Parties in Dispute Resolution
What are the ethical implications for lawyer mediators, arbitrators and dispute resolution providers when the lines between the roles of lawyers and the non-lawyers who are representing clients in dispute resolution become blurry? Traditionally, non-lawyer advocates (hereinafter NARs) have represented clients in the negotiations, mediation and arbitration of legal matters without cause for concern. Yes,…
Training Lawyer-Entrepreneurs
The Great Recession has caused many new attorneys to question their decisions to go to law school. The highly publicized decline in employment opportunities for lawyers has called into question the value of obtaining a law degree. The tightening of the economy has diminished the availability of entry-level jobs for law graduates across employment sectors….
Computer Systems Fit for the Legal Profession?
Abstract This essay aims to contribute robust grounds to question the Susskinds’ influential, consequentialist logic when it comes to the legitimacy criteria for wholesale automation in the legal profession. It does so by questioning their minimalist understanding of the professions. If it is our commitment to moral equality that is at stake every time lawyers…