Digital Commons Network^™

Who's Afraid Of Copyright And Ai?, Deborah R. Gerhardt

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Copyright and AI need not be a copyright no man’s land. Recent decisions by the Copyright Office have gotten so much media attention that many creators are unsure if they can secure copyright protection if they use AI as a creative tool. The proposed creative control paradigm can help us all tackle the challenge of determining when works created with the assistance of AI are copyrightable. Instead of relying on long-established nuanced precedent for protecting works generated with new technology, the Copyright Office asserts that any content generated with assistance from AI tools is unprotectable. This position is radically inconsistent …

Artificial Personhood: The Implications Of Recognizing The Legal Personhood Of Artificialintelligence, Daniel C. Borges

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Artificial intelligence (AI) is here in a big way. As society grapples with the implications of this profound new technology, the question of whether AI entities should be granted independent legal recognition, akin to human personhood, has emerged as a pivotal topic in jurisprudence. This Article explores the foundations, evolution, and implications of AI personhood, addressing philosophical perspectives, the development of personhood as a legal fiction (with specific emphasis on corporate personhood), and the need for AI personhood to counter the risks posed by rapidly developing AI technology. It defines the "AI person" as one whose legal recognition furthers a …

Introduction To The Northern Illinois University Law Review 2026 Symposium, Ashley Larsen

Northern Illinois University Law Review

In the fifty years since the advent of Agricultural Law as a field, there has been a cascade of changes and new laws that impact the everyday farmer. In 2025 alone, the National Agricultural Law Center noted ten hot button issues impacting laws and policies surrounding agriculture. Issues mentioned span from changes in pesticide regulations to alleged anticompetitive conduct in the beef sector. Recent discussions in Agricultural Law heavily concern the development of technology, including the ever more complex software in farm equipment,  and the growth of artificial intelligence. As technology continues to advance, these conversations will only grow more …

U.S. Regulation And Litigation Regarding Gmos: A Cautionary Tale Of A Piecemeal Framework, Michael R. Reese, George V. Granade

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Bioengineered crops using genetically modified organisms (GMOs or GM) are big business in the United States. In little more than two decades, GM agriculture constitutes more than 90% of crops such as corn, soy, and canola. The acceptance of GMO foods by consumers, however, has not been as robust—leading to demand for labeling regulations so consumers can identify whether their foods contain GMOs. U.S. law governing GMOs, particularly food labeling, lacks a comprehensive regulatory scheme and is instead highly fragmented. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has debated how to label such foods for over a decade, issuing no rules …

Nothing Runs Like A Deere, Except When Deere Doesn’T Run: Why Illinois Should Enact Right-To-Repair Legislation For Its Farmers, John Aird

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Since 1971, John Deere has been using the popular slogan “Nothing Runs Like a Deere,” symbolizing the strength and self-reliance long associated with American farming. Yet as modern agricultural equipment has become more computerized and complex, manufacturers such as John Deere have restricted farmers’ ability to independently repair the equipment they own, through the use of unattainable software, licensing agreements, digital locks, and warranty limitations. The modern right-to-repair movement challenges this shift. At its core, the movement asserts that ownership should include the ability to repair the product that a consumer owns. This article argues that Illinois should enact a …

Five Urban Futures For A Hot Planet: U.S. Legal Scenarios, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

If current climate change trends continue, flooding, extreme heat, wildfires, and water scarcity will make the homes of millions of people in the United States increasingly uninhabitable. This change could happen by the end of the century, perhaps sooner. Most people will want to stay in their current homes, but there is no coherent policy to fortify the most vulnerable places. Nor is the current legal system equipped to handle what may become one of the largest migrations in U.S. history, as people flee intolerable climate conditions. This Article envisions five scenarios for cities in the future: sprout, grow, stay, …

The Impact Of Ai Companions On Family Law, Clare Huntington

Faculty Scholarship

People of all ages and backgrounds regularly use AI companions — virtual friends, lovers, and confidantes powered by artificial intelligence. As a new form of relationship, this development poses novel doctrinal and policy questions for family law. As a doctrinal matter, what does child neglect look like when a parent delegates caretaking to an AI companion? How should standards for elder neglect adapt to the widespread use of robotic caregivers? Should lawmakers impose mandatory reporting requirements on therapy bots if children share experiences of abuse or neglect? And can people designate an AI companion as a health care proxy? As …

The History Of The Constitution Is Our Future., Maggie Blackhawk

Michigan Law Review

The Constitution of the United States establishes a government; it also stands as the fundamental law of a people. It shapes daily life, distributes power, and sets a direction for the future. And yet when we ask about the reach and meaning of the Constitution, we are increasingly told to look backward. The answers to our future are said to lie in the past.

Jurisdictional Waters, Jamison E. Colburn

Michigan Law Review

A review of Waters of the United States: POTUS, SCOTUS, WOTUS, and the Politics of a National Resource. By Royal C. Gardner.

Fourth Amendment Anti-Theory, Matthew Tokson

Michigan Law Review

A review of The Digital Fourth Amendment: Privacy and Policing in Our Online World. By Orin Kerr.

Legal Ethics Of Ai Snake Oil: Navigating The Hype, Harm, And Hope Of Legal Ai, Drew Simshaw

Michigan Law Review

A review of AI Snake Oil.By Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor.

When Lawyers Protest, Renee Knake Jefferson

Michigan Law Review

A review of Lawyer Nation: The Past, Present, and Future of the American Legal Profession. By Ray Brescia and a review of Canceling Lawyers: Case Studies of Accountability, Toleration, and Regret. By W. Bradley Wendel.

The Corporate Restructuring Machine: Introducing An Open Platform Approach To Workouts, Horst Eidenmüller, Jared Mayer

Articles

Out-of-court corporate reorganizations, or “corporate workouts,” allow dispersed investors with differing interests to coalesce and strike deals to successfully reorganize distressed companies. Corporate workouts, however, suffer from a host of well-known problems, creating “process fragility.” Current bargaining dynamics limit the instances in which corporate workouts can be used, narrow the kinds of deals that can be made, and invite opportunistic and other socially costly behavior. Yet the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution is here; how can it help parties navigate corporate workouts?

In this Article, we argue that AI is well situated to help increase the efficiency of corporate workouts. Based …

Privacy As A Democratic Guardrail: A Case For Fourth Amendment Constraints On Micro-Targeted Rhetoric, Susan Tanner

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Spirit Of Jubilee, Christopher D. Hampson

BYU Law Review

The Jubilee texts of the Hebrew Bible call for debts to be forgiven and enslaved persons freed every seven years and for farmland to be restored to families every fifty years. Tightly woven into the legal, narrative, and prophetic vision of the text, the Jubilee tradition offers an inspiring and dramatic vision of socioeconomic justice for multiple religious traditions. Yet the American legal tradition, which purports to draw on its religious heritage for inspiration and moral authority, has not fully drawn on the Jubilee tradition for a contemporary vision of equality and justice. This Essay seeks to rekindle that conversation. …

Of Climate Justice And Magical Realism, Sonya Ziaja

Michigan Law Review

A review of Climate Justice: What Rich Nations Owe the World—and the Future. By Cass R. Sunstein.

Update: Colorado River Basin Storage Continues Slide Toward System Crash, Anne Castle, Jack Schmidt, Eric Kuhn, Kathryn Sorensen, Katherine Tara

The Traveling Wilburys of the Colorado River

If the Colorado River Basin (Basin) experiences another dry year, similar to Water Year 2025, it is likely that reasonably accessible storage in Lake Powell and Lake Mead would be mostly depleted, even if consumptive uses and losses are at or near historic lows. Run-of-the-river operations would shortly ensue. This would be an outcome with devastating consequences. In contrast, if next year is very wet, similar to Water Year 2023, the Basin’s largest federal reservoirs would recover somewhat, but would provide only about two years of cushion before we find ourselves again in the same position we are in today, …

Violencia Cosificadora Contra Las Mujeres En La Era De La Ia Generativa: Sesgos, Poder Y Deshumanización Digital, Norma Mildret Pérez Alvarado

GDI. Revista de investigación de Género, Diseño e Innovación

La expansión de la Inteligencia Artificial generativa ha facilitado la producción y difusión masiva de imágenes no consentidas de mujeres y niñas, incluidas representaciones sexualizadas y formas de cosificación digital que pueden generarse y viralizarse con mínimos costos y barreras técnicas. Estas prácticas amplifican la escala y velocidad de la violencia basada en imágenes, al hacerla más accesible, replicable y difícil de contener.

El presente artículo sostiene que esta problemática no se agota en los deepfakes sexuales o en la denominada “desnudificación” digital de fotografías de mujeres. También comprende la generación de imágenes cosificadoras de mujeres que, aun sin contenido …

To Lecture Capture Or Not To Lecture Capture? The Answer For Legal Education Appears To Be A “Regulated Yes”, Nikos Harris Kc

Dalhousie Law Journal

The debate over the use of technology in the law classroom is often framed as the necessary use of modern forms of information sharing versus the creation of distractions which undermine deeper learning. One subject of significant debate in law faculties is whether students should have regular access to taped lectures from their courses, often referred to as “lecture capture.” Most universities have systems that can routinely record classes, and there are a number of pedagogical benefits which flow from student use of taped lectures. However, the issue of providing broad access to lecture capture is a complex one which …

The Degradation Of Prices: Platform Power, The Erosion Of Price Comparison, And Rebuilding Comparison Shopping In The Digital Economy, Stephanie T. Nguyen, Shaoul Sussman

Center for Law and the Economy

The ability to know the price of a product or service and then compare prices of similar products or services is a foundational cornerstone of consumer choice and competitive markets. Once, buyers could more easily compare identical products across multiple sellers. However, this process has systematically degraded over time and has become increasingly difficult to do in practice. When prices are a reliable signal of product and market value, consumers can make informed purchasing decisions and sellers can compete for business by offering more attractive prices to consumers. This is a core market force that keeps price levels in check …

Ai, Medicine, And Social Determinants Of Health Data, Ryan Doyloo, Nicholson Price

Articles

This article examines how medical AI systems are incorporating SDoH data and the governance challenges that follow. The authors show that while SDoH integration can enhance clinical workflows and predictive accuracy — potentially improving outcomes for underserved populations — it also introduces acute risks of proxy discrimination, where facially neutral variables replicate protected characteristics. Surveying U.S., EU, and international frameworks, the authors argue that existing regimes lack clear ex ante guidance to distinguish beneficial from harmful uses of SDoH data. In response, they advance post-market monitoring as a pragmatic and scalable pathway: generating real-world, SDoH-stratified evidence that can support enforcement, …

Beyond Contract Law: Expanding Legal Education In Construction Management, Grace M. Hetland

Construction Management

The California Polytechnic State University Construction Management (CM) program is designed to prepare students for the managerial responsibilities of the construction industry. However, construction projects involve a broad range of legal considerations that extend beyond traditional contract administration. While the CM curriculum currently includes a course focused on construction contract law, there is limited exposure to other legal disciplines that frequently affect construction professionals throughout the project lifecycle. This research explores the potential value of expanding construction law education in the CM curriculum by implementing an additional topics course as an elective for students. To determine which legal subjects would …

On The Right To Obscurity, Woodrow Hartzog, Evan Selinger

Faculty Scholarship

Tragically, U.S. privacy law has neglected to address a significant dimension of privacy. While lawmakers and judges have routinely recognized intrusions into our secluded spaces and breaches of our confidentiality and secrecy, they have largely failed to protect our most common yet also our most underappreciated form of privacy: the practical obscurity that allows us to live freely and with dignity. Obscurity, which is the state of protection that arises when personal information is difficult for some people to obtain or correctly interpret, serves several vital interests: (1) it safeguards our ability to express ourselves without fear that everything we …

Shrinking Sovereignty: By Land, Sea, And…Air?, Cynthia R. Harris

Pace Environmental Law Review

Atlantis was a mythical State destroyed by the gods as an object lesson to humanity. The complete destruction of a State, as a political entity, does have precedent in historical reality. The complete and permanent loss of a State’s physical territory, however, is a problem humanity has never faced—until now. Today, climate change-driven sea level rise is bringing the future sovereign status of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in question. A growing body of legal scholarship argues for maintaining these States’ maritime jurisdictions but has not yet extended the question skyward to SIDS’ jurisdiction over airspace.

This Article addresses that …

Critical Geopolitics And The Reconstruction Of Meaning: A Discourse Analysis Of The 'Terrorism' Label Applied To Hamas By Western Hegemony, Cahaya Mulyani Sakti, M.Hamdan Basyar

Journal of Terrorism Studies

The emergence of Hamas in 1987 cannot be separated from the configuration of modern colonialism and the continuity of occupation that shaped the political reality. Hamas’s early phase was rooted in socio-religious activities through education and community empowerment programs, before evolving into armed resistance against the occupation. The labeling of Hamas as a “terrorist” organization began in the mid-1990s in U.S. legal documents, which subsequently generated debate and gave rise to counter-narratives. This study employs the frameworks of critical geopolitics (Ó Tuathail & Agnew) and the Discourse-Historical Approach (Wodak) to analyze the labeling of Hamas as “terrorist” by Western hegemony. …

Chopped And Screwed: How The Soundexchange V. Sirius Xm Decision Remixes Section 114 Of The Copyright Act, Cat Wood

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

In SoundExchange, Inc. v. Sirius XM Radio Inc. (S.D.N.Y. 2025), the court held that SoundExchange—the congressionally designated nonprofit that collects and distributes statutory digital performance royalties under 17 U.S.C. § 114—lacks authority to bring suit to recover alleged underpayments. That ruling creates an enforcement paradox at the center of the section 114 statutory-license ecosystem: SoundExchange is the entity built to receive royalty reports, audit compliance, and distribute payments at scale, yet it cannot directly compel payment through litigation when the system fails. This Note argues that the decision misreads statutory structure by treating SoundExchange as a mere administrative clearinghouse rather …

Truth That Lies: How Literal Falsity Lost The Consumer And How To Restore It, Porter Alexander Tynes, Iii

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

The more deceptive the claim, the safer it becomes. Recent false advertising decisions hold that a categorical marketing promise is not literally false so long as it works for someone—even if it fails for ordinary consumers in ordinary use. Under this logic, technical accuracy immunizes practical deception, and truth is measured by theoretical possibility rather than communicative meaning.

This Note argues that this “truth for some” doctrine represents a sharp break from the Lanham Act’s consumer-protection purpose. Decisions such as BPI Sports v. ThermoLife invert the doctrine of literal falsity, transforming it from the Act’s strongest safeguard into a liability …

Skin In The Game: The Case For Statutorily Excluding Tattoos From Copyright Protection, Emily Gamble

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

The growth of social media, AI-generated imagery, and name, image, and likeness (NIL) licensing has exponentially increased the reproduction of tattoos, yet their status under the Copyright Act remains unsettled. While tattoos arguably satisfy the threshold requirements of Title 17, their fixation on human skin challenges the definition of a "material object" and raises unique conflicts regarding bodily autonomy and publicity rights. Currently, courts address these disputes largely through equitable doctrines like implied license and fair use to avoid public policy failures, resulting in an unpredictable and incoherent legal framework.

This Note argues that judicial improvisation is insufficient to resolve …

Patents And Technology Evolution: Altering Innovations And Innovators Via Patent Influences, Richard Gruner

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

Technologies improve primarily through evolutionary change not rational optimization. New technologies emerge as attempts to solve practical problems, the technologies are tested in marketplaces to determine if they are superior in cost and function to alternatives, and those that fare well in the testing gain widespread adoption.  Widely adopted technologies, and their problems, form the basis for the next round of technology improvements and evolution.  Through these steps, evolutionary processes lacking rational direction can generate changing technologies matched to the desires and problems of present society.

As they operate to advance diverse technologies, evolutionary processes governing technology change are subject …

Using Data To Discern Whether Nepa Causes Delay, And What Can Be Done About It, John C. Ruple, David E. Adelman, Jamie Pleune

Public Land & Resources Law Review

This article proceeds in three principal parts. Part I provides an overview of NEPA that is focused on the requirements contained in the Act itself, the Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, and developments involving agency NEPA regulations. Part II summarizes what we know about factors causing or contributing to delays in permitting in general and NEPA compliance in particular. The central question examined in Part II is the extent to which changes to NEPA respond to barriers to development and are therefore likely to be effective. Part III offers recommendations and is …