Science and Technology Law Commons^™

Les Outils Numériques : Instruments D’Inclusion Ou D’Exclusion Fiscale ?, Karim Daher

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

Over the past few decades, with the rapid technological advancements, multinational enterprises (MNEs) and notably the internet giants have acquired a global dimension and such power which allowed them free and dominant penetration in developing countries’ markets such as Lebanon. This unrestricted penetration was facilitated by the absence of any specific local or international legal framework as well as smart tailored tax optimization enabling them to compete with local businesses and deprive national economies of significant resources. This situation has contributed at the same time to the development of the parallel or informal economy and led to a proliferation of …

Reporting Materiality Under The Sec Cybersecurity Disclosure Rules: How Corporate Boards Balance Duty And Risk For Cyber Threats And Incidents, Deborah Slattery-Pereira

American University Business Law Review

The Security Exchange Commission’s (SEC) cybersecurity rules require that public companies disclose a material cyber threat or incident and the impact of the incident on the company’s business Corporate boards must disclose any cyber-related information that would affect a reasonable shareholder’s investment decisions. These rules delegate to the corporate board and management the decision of which cybersecurity events qualify as material to investors. Directors and officers must also decide when and how to disclose to the SEC, and what information to report.

The SEC Cybersecurity Rules increase compliance and litigation costs for public companies, as shareholders can use this information …

Information Law Pluralism, Hannah Bloch-Wehba

Faculty Scholarship

Information-intensive activities are reshaping political, social, and economic institutions. As they respond to these shifts, legislators and regulators are embracing information as a regulatory device for tech. Far from limiting themselves to public disclosure, consumer notice, and other traditional mechanisms of fostering transparency and information flows, however, legislators are using other, more nuanced tools to incentivize regulated entities to obtain, generate, and share information.

This Article maps the landscape of the emerging information-based regimes for regulating tech and assesses their conceptual and practical implications. It canvasses an extensive set of recently enacted laws regulating the information economy and shows that, …

Data As Policy, Janet Freilich, W. Nicholson Price Ii

Faculty Scholarship

A large literature on regulation highlights the many different methods of policy-making: command-and-control rulemaking, informational disclosures, tort liability, taxes, and more. But the literature overlooks a powerful method to achieve policy objectives: data. The state can provide (or suppress) data as a regulatory tool to solve policy problems. For administrations with expansive views of government’s purpose, government-provided data can serve as infrastructure for innovation and push innovation in socially desirable directions; for administrations with deregulatory ambitions, suppressing or choosing not to collect data can reduce regulatory power or serve as a back-door mechanism to subvert statutory or common law rules. …

Professor Cindy Williams Joins Global Future Councils At The World Economic Forum In Dubai, Maurer School Of Law - Indiana University

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Indiana University Maurer School of Law Professor Cindy Williams is representing the school this week at the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils (GFC) Annual Meeting in Dubai.

As a member of the GFC on Climate Change and Nature Loss, Professor Williams is contributing to discussions that frame environmental challenges as key financial risks and opportunities for companies. Her work focuses on how innovative finance can be harnessed to restore nature and build economic resilience worldwide.

Governance In The Absence Of Government, Tracy Hresko Pearl

Faculty Articles

Artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing at an unprecedented pace, with generative systems exerting growing influence over social, economic, and political life. While Al offers opportunities for innovation and efficiency, it also poses risks ranging from misinformation and job displacement to existential threats if highly autonomous systems evade human control. Across industry, government, and civil society, there is broad consensus that Al requires oversight.

Yet traditional U.S. regulatory approaches face six significant barriers: (1) technology outpacing legislation, (2) limited Al expertise among policymakers, (3) regulatory capture, (4) political gridlock, (5) outdated governance structures, and (6) the inherent complexity of Al. Combined …

Dark Patterns As Disloyal Design, Johanna Gunawan, Woodrow Hartzog, Neil Richards, David Choffnes, Christo Wilson

Faculty Scholarship

Lawmakers have started to regulate “dark patterns,” understood to be design practices meant to influence technology users’ decisions through manipulative or deceptive means. Most agree that dark patterns are undesirable, but open questions remain as to which design choices should be subjected to scrutiny, much less the best way to regulate them.

In this Article, we propose adapting the concept of dark patterns to better fit legal frameworks. Critics allege that the legal conceptualizations of dark patterns are overbroad, impractical, and counterproductive. We argue that law and policy conceptualizations of dark patterns suffer from three deficiencies: First, dark patterns lack …

Dark Patterns As Disloyal Design, Johanna Gunawan, Woodrow Hartzog, Neil Richards, David Choffnes, Christo Wilson

Indiana Law Journal

Lawmakers have started to regulate “dark patterns,” understood to be design practices meant to influence technology users’ decisions through manipulative or deceptive means. Most agree that dark patterns are undesirable, but open questions remain as to which design choices should be subjected to scrutiny, much less the best way to regulate them.

In this Article, we propose adapting the concept of dark patterns to better fit legal frameworks. Critics allege that the legal conceptualizations of dark patterns are overbroad, impractical, and counterproductive. We argue that law and policy conceptualizations of dark patterns suffer from three deficiencies: First, dark patterns lack …

Science And Causality In Technology Litigation, J. Nathan Matias, Jonathon W. Penney

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Moral Panic Or Public Health Crisis? Lessons From Drugs And Gambling For “Addictive” Design, Matthew B. Lawrence, Haomin (Kevin) Yan

Seattle University Law Review

Alcohol, automobiles, guns, lottery, loot boxes, meat, music, opioid painkillers, processed foods, prop bets, slot machines, television, tobacco, violent video games. Over the last century each of these has been subject to concerns—some might even say “moral panics”—from parents and policymakers about avoidable harms to kids and adults. In some cases we look back with the benefit of hindsight and dismiss those concerns as naïve or moralistic. In others we look back at them as justified or as having come too late to check an expanding industry before it did unfathomable harm while growing so powerful that it became all …

Let The Sunshine In: Crafting Constitutional Transparency Regulations For Content Moderation, Caitlin Ring Carlson

Seattle University Law Review

In response to public concern about the impact of social media, legislators in some U.S. states have developed laws to regulate the process of content moderation. Many include mandatory transparency and disclosure requirements, some of which courts have already deemed an unconstitutional infringement on social media platforms’ right to free expression. This article explores the parameters for crafting constitutional social media transparency regulations using existing U.S. media policy and insights from recent legal challenges. The resulting analysis identifies content neutral transparency requirements that mandate the disclosure of purely factual, non-controversial information as those most likely to withstand judicial scrutiny. Specifically, …

This Is Not A Game: The Addictive Allure Of Digital Companions, Nizan Geslevich Packin, Karni Chagal-Feferkorn

Seattle University Law Review

Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents have become an inescapable part of modern childhood, reshaping education, leisure activities, entertainment, and social interaction. From AI-powered tutors that adapt to individual learning styles to emotionally responsive chatbots that simulate human companionship, these systems promise unprecedented personalization, cognitive stimulation, and social support. However, these benefits mask significant risks that remain unregulated and inadequately addressed.

Although adults are also susceptible to forming deep emotional bonds with AI companions—often trusting them as if they possessed genuine understanding and empathy—children are particularly vulnerable. Their misplaced trust can more severely distort social development, weaken critical thinking, and foster unhealthy …

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism, Cynthia A. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

Significant regulatory resources have been spent developing global, voluntary climate and sustainability disclosure standards, such as the TCFD, TNRD, and ISSB’s Sustainability and Climate Disclosure standards, or domestically required disclosures, such as in the EU and in the U.S. Thus, it is important to evaluate whether this disclosure, particularly voluntary, qualitative disclosure, will have the power to shift the allocation of capital, will have a significant effect on the management of climate risk within firms, and ultimately will reduce climate change risk and biodiversity loss.

In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence …

Ban Cookie Banners: A Case Study In Tech Regulation, Kate Klonick

Faculty Publications

Few experiences on the modern internet are as universally reviled as the cookie banner. They clutter websites with pop-ups, interrupt user flow, make information harder to access, and demand repetitive, meaningless clicks. What was once heralded as a tool to advance individual autonomy and privacy has, in practice, become a daily annoyance that breeds cynicism with the very concept of consent itself. Cookie banners do not empower; they weary. They do not inform; they obscure. They do not prevent surveillance; they normalize it.

The tragedy of the cookie banner is that it embodies the best intentions but worst solutionism of …

Ai Ethics, Law, And Policy, Pauline Kim, Ryan Durrie

Scholarship@WashULaw

AI technologies promise many benefits, but they can also have significant negative impacts on human health, safety, well-being, and fundamental rights. This chapter explores the different governance tools that have been considered for guiding developments in AI in socially beneficial ways, examining the relevance of ethics, law, and policy. Each of these approaches offer tools to address these concerns; however, each has limitations, and none provides a complete solution in itself. Statements of ethical principles can articulate high-level values and goals to guide behavior but are usually quite vague and difficult to operationalize. They also lack any enforcement mechanism. In …

Volume 7 (2024) Artificial Intelligence And Responsibility, Arwa Alnajashi, Danielle Derise, Philip L. Frana, David Mcgraw, Amanda Sawyer, Tatjana Titareva, Raafat Zaini, Allie Zombron

International Journal on Responsibility

The seventh volume of the International Journal on Responsibility (IJR) arrives at a crucial moment in the evolution of artificial intelligence and its integration into our academic and social fabric. As we witness the rapid advancement and deployment of AI systems across various domains, this special issue examines the multifaceted dimensions of responsibility surrounding AI technology, with a particular focus on its role in higher education and broader societal implications.

The articles in this volume contribute to our understanding of responsibility through diverse lenses, from classroom implementation to ethical design considerations. Together, they fulfill IJR’s central mission of exploring “Who …

The False Choice Between Digital Regulation And Innovation, Anu Bradford

Northwestern University Law Review

This Article challenges the common view that more stringent regulation of the digital economy inevitably compromises innovation and undermines technological progress. This view, vigorously advocated by the tech industry, has shaped the public discourse in the United States, where the country’s thriving tech economy is often associated with a staunch commitment to free markets. U.S. lawmakers have also traditionally embraced this perspective, which explains their hesitancy to regulate the tech industry to date. The European Union has chosen another path, regulating the digital economy with stringent data privacy, antitrust, content moderation, and other digital regulations designed to shape the evolution …

The False Choice Between Digital Regulation And Innovation, Anu Bradford

Faculty Scholarship

This Article challenges the common view that more stringent regulation of the digital economy inevitably compromises innovation and undermines technological progress. This view, vigorously advocated by the tech industry, has shaped the public discourse in the United States, where the country’s thriving tech economy is often associated with a staunch commitment to free markets. U.S. lawmakers have also traditionally embraced this perspective, which explains their hesitancy to regulate the tech industry to date. The European Union has chosen another path, regulating the digital economy with stringent data privacy, antitrust, content moderation, and other digital regulations designed to shape the evolution …

The Promise And Perils Of Tech Whistleblowing, Hannah Bloch-Wehba

Northwestern University Law Review

Whistleblowers and leakers wield significant influence in technology law and policy. On topics ranging from cybersecurity to free speech, tech whistleblowers spur congressional hearings, motivate the introduction of legislation, and animate critical press coverage of tech firms. But while scholars and policymakers have long called for transparency and accountability in the tech sector, they have overlooked the significance of individual disclosures by industry insiders—workers, employees, and volunteers—who leak information that firms would prefer to keep private.

This Article offers an account of the rise and influence of tech whistleblowing. Radical information asymmetries pervade tech law and policy. Firms exercise near-complete …

Fitting A Block Into A Sphere Mold: The Inadequacy Of Current Data Privacy Regulations In Protecting Data Privacy Within The Blockchain Space, Jenny Yang

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Despite global imposition of data privacy laws and regulations, data privacy is a nonexistent luxury amongst the data-charged world we live in. Data privacy has long been established as a fundamental right. Entities have successfully established robust methodologies around existing data privacy laws and regulations to utilize past consumer behavior to predict, impact and manipulate current and future consumer behaviors. This phenomenon has been commonly coined as “corporate surveillance.” Emerging spaces arising through technological developments have greater access into consumer data to impact economic choices. Specifically, the blockchain space, through its unique open-source and permanent traits, has been able to …

Algorithmic Financial Regulation: Limits Of Computing Complex Adaptive Systems, Shuping Li

American University Business Law Review

This article examines the potential of and limits to the use of machine learning for financial regulation. Ideally, if we could fully understand the financial system and agree on long- and short-term regulatory goals, we would be able to write code that carries out the computation that extracts proper representations from the data and makes correct regulatory decisions. We cannot do this yet because of limited sources of data, the bias brought by human beings and algorithmic models, and the difficulty of improving uninterpretable models. Furthermore, since law is a combination of merits and facts, there are difficulties in establishing …

Regulating Driving Automation Safety, Matthew T. Wansley

Emory Law Journal

Over forty thousand people die in motor vehicle crashes in the United States each year, and over two million are injured. The careful deployment of driving automation systems could prevent many of these deaths and injuries, but only if it is accompanied by effective regulation. Conventional vehicle safety standards are inadequate because they can only test how technology performs in a controlled environment. To assess the safety of a driving automation system, regulators must observe how it performs in a range of unpredictable, real world edge cases. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is trying to adapt by experimenting …

Balancing Interests: Ai, Business & Human Rights, And The Legal Landscape In An Era Of Disruption, Jena Martin, Ritu Narula

Faculty Articles

On October 30, 2023, the Biden Administration issued a sweeping executive order espousing a policy to advance the development and use of artificial intelligence ("Al") while also establishing safeguards across the federal government. The Executive Order marked the U.S. government's largest move forward related to the regulation of Al. The Order also represents the government's latest effort to advance equity, privacy, and national security in the use of AI systems. Moreover, the Order comes at a time when governments around the world are wrestling with the impact of AI and its disruptive effect, not just on markets, but on society …

Aclp - Comments To The Fcc Re Net Neutrality - December 2023, New York Law School

Reports and Resources

No abstract provided.

Cyber Plungers: Colonial Pipeline And The Case For An Omnibus Cybersecurity Legislation, Asaf Lubin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The May 2021 ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline was a wake-up call for a federal administration slow to realize the dangers that cybersecurity threats pose to our critical national infrastructure. The attack forced hundreds of thousands of Americans along the east coast to stand in endless lines for gas, spiking both prices and public fears. These stressors on our economy and supply chains triggered emergency proclamations in four states, including Georgia. That a single cyberattack could lead to a national emergency of this magnitude was seen by many as proof of even more crippling threats to come. Executive Director of …

Entity Of The State: The Transparency Of Restricting Telecommunications Firms As Threats To America’S National Security, Benjamin W. Cramer

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

This paper analyzes recent American regulations regarding international telecommunications firms that have been restricted from doing business in the United States, as apparent threats to national security. The paper will include policy-oriented research into the relevant legislation, plus more theoretical research on the framing of geopolitical disputes and the transparency of the resulting regulatory actions. There has been some suspicion from journalists and government watchdogs that such restrictions are politically motivated, with dramatic claims of national security threats leading to non-transparent trade regulations. This paper discusses the framing of geopolitical disputes and their impact on trade policy in the telecommunications …

U.S. Cryptocurrency Regulation: A Slowly Evolving State Of Affairs, Aaron Poynton

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

After nearly a decade and a half since the creation of the first cryptocurrency, crypto regulation in the United States is fragmented, with different measures taken at the federal and state levels, and even within and among agencies. This sluggish speed is not necessarily a surprise as government regulation has always chased rapid advancements in technology and associated consumer and market behavior changes. However, this is a precarious position for the United States--and the world--as the U.S. is a leader in the global financial community, the high concentration of crypto-based wealth, and economies’ increasingly interconnected and interdependent nature. This working …

The Freedom Of Influencing, Hannibal Travis

University of Miami Law Review

Social media stars and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) Act are clashing. Influencer marketing is a preferred way for entertainers, pundits, and everyday people to monetize their audiences and popularity. Manufacturers, service providers, retailers, and advertising agencies leverage influencers to reach into millions or even billions of consumer devices, capturing minutes or seconds of the market’s fleeting attention. FTC enforcement actions and private lawsuits have targeted influencers for failing to disclose the nature of a sponsorship relationship with a manufacturer, marketer, or service provider. Such a failure to disclose payments prominently is very common in Hollywood films and on radio …

Establishing The Legal Framework To Regulate Quantum Computing Technology, Kaya Derose

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

On Facial Recognition, Regulation, And "Data Necropolitics", Antonio Pele, Caitlin Mulholland

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This paper argues for actual and legal regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition. These new technologies represent great opportunities to improve the welfare of societies. However, some of their uses can also enhance discrimination and, eventually, lead to violence. From a comparative approach (examining the European Union and Brazil), we address the current and future aspects of facial regulation, AI, and personal data. This paper shows that regulation is relevant to protect the rule of law, free markets, and individual freedoms. It also examines the looming risks unfolding from the unregulated uses of new technologies. Our concept of …