Science and Technology Law Commons^™

Understanding The Line Between Art And Abuse: How Generative Ai Changes The Landscape Of Child Sexual Abuse Materials, Amy Trivison

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Spilling The Beans On Trade Dress: Whether Trade Dress Protection Gives Rise To Liability Under A Section 32 Claim On Trademark Infringement, Dahna S. Kazemyan

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

The Cost Of Compensation: A Novel Licensing Platform For Digital Content Poses Unique Compromise For Artists And Generative Ai Developers, Liberty R. Smith

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Brain-Computer Interfaces And Bioethical Implications On Society: Friend Or Foe?, Blake Landis

St. Thomas Law Review

As a child in the 1990s, I was captivated by the rapid evolution of technology. I recall the days of recording my favorite TV show on a VCR and inserting a cassette into my Walkman to enjoy music. Today, recording a favorite show is as simple as clicking a button on a DVR or using remote voice control. Similarly, I can listen to any song with a few taps on my smartphone. This technological progress brings to mind the story of Frankenstein, in which a young scientist, Victor Frankenstein, becomes obsessed with creating life. He succeeds in creating a humanoid …

A History Of Corporate Law Federalism In The Twentieth Century, William W. Bratton

Seattle University Law Review

This Article describes the emergence of corporate law federalism across a long twentieth century. The period begins with New Jersey’s successful initiation of charter competition in 1888 and ends with the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. The federalism in question describes the interrelation of state and federal regulation of corporate internal affairs. This Article takes a positive approach, pursuing no normative bottom line. It makes six observations: (1) the federalism describes a division of subject matter, with internal affairs regulated by the states and securities issuance and trading regulated by the federal government; (2) the federalism is an …

Don't Fear The Reaper? How Generative Artificial Intelligence Is Changing The Landscape Of Posthumous Communication Technology, Samuel Hoy Brown Vii

American University Law Review

Death and life. Yin and yang. The beginning and the end. But what if the end was only the beginning for those we leave behind?

Advancements in generative artificial intelligence technology have paved the way for “real” conversations with the people we really love. Companies across the globe are tapping into the $100 billion posthumous communication industry through the development of algorithms, chatbots, and in some instances, fully immersive virtual reality experiences with those no longer with us. As our society grapples with understanding the implications of artificial intelligence both generally and in the bereavement process, what may be seen …

Artificial Intelligence And Weaponized Illusions: Methodologies For Federal Fraud Prosecutions Involving Deepfakes, Andrew W. Eichner

American University Law Review

Experts in the public and private sectors have vocalized concerns over the potential harms that can be inflicted when artificial intelligence (AI) is used maliciously. As AI technology increases in availability, it will become more accessible to criminal actors and allow for the emergence of new kinds of fraudulent schemes. Deepfakes are highly realistic AI-rendered depictions of individuals that criminals have already used to perpetrate fraud on an international scale. These renderings mimic third parties known to victims, allowing fraudsters to leverage the trust and familiarity of an existing relationship to perpetrate their schemes. The deepfake is used to convince …

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 …

Stakeholder Capitalism’S Greatest Challenge: Reshaping A Public Consensus To Govern A Global Economy, Leo E. Strine Jr., Michael Klain

Seattle University Law Review

The Berle XIV: Developing a 21st Century Corporate Governance Model Conference asks whether there is a viable 21st Century Stakeholder Governance model. In our conference keynote article, we argue that to answer that question yes requires restoring—to use Berle’s term—a “public consensus” throughout the global economy in favor of the balanced model of New Deal capitalism, within which corporations could operate in a way good for all their stakeholders and society, that Berle himself supported.

The world now faces problems caused in large part by the enormous international power of corporations and the institutional investors who dominate their governance. These …

Henderson And The Objective Observer Standard: The Future Of Race-Conscious Standards Post-Students For Fair Admissions, Gabriela Dionisio

Seattle University Law Review

On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Students for Fair Admissions v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, which struck down race-conscious admissions policies. Within just a year after its ruling, Students for Fair Admissions has already had a sweeping impact, reaching beyond higher education. Although the Supreme Court did not indicate whether Students for Fair Admissions applies to sectors beyond higher education, law firms, and other employers have already modified their diversity policies and initiatives, erasing race and company diversity considerations. Given those dramatic changes, there is growing fear that Students for Fair Admissions …

Same Crime, Different Time: Sentencing Disparities In The Deep South & A Path Forward Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Hailey M. Donovan

Seattle University Law Review

The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. The American obsession with crime and punishment can be tracked over the last half-century, as the nation’s incarceration rate has risen astronomically. Since 1970, the number of incarcerated people in the United States has increased more than sevenfold to over 2.3 million, outpacing both crime and population growth considerably. While the rise itself is undoubtedly bleak, a more troubling truth lies just below the surface. Not all states contribute equally to American mass incarceration. Rather, states have vastly different incarceration rates. Unlike at the federal level, …

Emerging Technology's Unfamiliarity With Commercial Law, Carla L. Reyes

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Over the course of a three-year, collaborative process that was open to the public, the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) and the American Law Institute (ALI) undertook a project to revise the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) to account for the impact of emerging technologies on commercial transactions. The amendments, approved jointly by the ULC and ALI in July 2022, touch on aspects of the entire UCC, but one change has inspired ire and attracted national media attention: a proposed revision to the definition of “money.” The 2022 UCC Amendments alter the definition of “money” to account for the introduction of central …

Repurposing The United Nations Trusteeship Council To Govern The Establishment Of Outer Space Settlements, Andrew Wulf

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Current existing international law and treaties on outer space do not address or regulate private actors’ property claims or human settlements in outer space. American companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, as well as countries like the United States, Russia, and China, are seeking to create colonies on the Moon and Mars. However, there is no international legal authority to allow or regulate this. In order to legitimize and control this impending outgrowth of human settlements, this paper proposes that the U.N. Trusteeship Council be repurposed to govern non-state actors’ claims of outer space property.

First, this paper explains …

Can Informed Consent Solve Ai Bias?, W. Nicholson Price Ii

Reviews

Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving increasingly rapidly into health care (as indeed into everything else). But it has problems there (as indeed everywhere else!). What’s to be done, in particular, about the deeply embedded biases along racial and other lines that permeate the whole world of health and, as such, are likely to be encoded in AI?

Khiara Bridges gives an answer that seems mild but carries roots of revolution. In Race in the Machine: Racial Disparities in Health and Medical AI, she argues that informed consent is a key lever to pull in fighting these racial disparities. But not …

New Tech, Old Problem: The Rise Of Virtual Rent-To-Own Agreements, Carrie Floyd

Fellow, Adjunct, Lecturer, and Research Scholar Works

This Article explores how fintech has disrupted the traditional rent-to-own (RTO) industry, giving rise to new, virtual RTO agreements (VirTOs). These VirTOs have enabled the RTO industry to expand into the service industry and to markets for products not traditionally associated with rentals, such as vehicle repairs, pet ownership, and medical devices. This Article analyzes this development.

RTO agreements purport to rent products to a consumer until the conclusion of a set number of renewable rental payments, at which point ownership transfers. The fundamental characteristic of these agreements – and why they are not regulated as loans – are that …

Fda Modernization Act 2.0: The Beginning Of The End For Animal Testing In Drug Development, Julia Williams

Animal Law Review

Historical drug testing protocols utilized animal testing to determine whether drugs were safe and effective for use in humans. However, recognizing that testing drugs on other species is potentially dangerous for humans, troubled by failures, unnecessarily expensive, and time consuming, the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, passed in December 2022, removed animal testing as a requirement for new drug applications. While this was an important step forward, a notable failure of that Act is that it did not go far enough to end animal testing. Accordingly, this Article proposes an FDA Modernization Act 3.0.

The FDA Modernization Act 3.0 would ensure …

Neither Covered Nor Excluded: Impacts Of Speciesism On Aquatic Animal Experimentation Under The Animal Welfare Act, Sophia Pastorini

Animal Law Review

Despite significant scientific evidence affirming their capacity for pain and pleasure, aquatic animals in laboratory settings receive limited federal protection. The Animal Welfare Act leaves aquatic animals entirely adrift; they are neither included in the list of protected animals nor explicitly excluded. They inhabit a realm so marginalized that they are not even mentioned in the Act. The urgency of safeguarding aquatic animal welfare is a matter of moral imperative, scientific integrity, and justice. By employing a multifaceted approach that combines ethical considerations and legal frameworks, this Article seeks to catalyze change in the treatment of aquatic animals in research …

De-Myth-Ifying Laboratory Animal Law: The Truth Behind Four Commonly Misunderstood Facts In Laboratory Animal Welfare Law, Rebecca Critser

Animal Law Review

The subspeciality of laboratory animal law presents unique difficulties because it requires familiarity with two highly specialized fields: law and science. Consequently, it is not surprising that some aspects of laboratory animal law have been misunderstood. This Article highlights four such misunderstandings surrounding laboratory animal law and provides an explanation of the truth behind each myth. The myths discussed include: (1) the AWA is the only federal law applicable to laboratory animals; (2) states are preempted from regulating the laboratory animal space; (3) birds, rats, and mice are not covered under federal law; and (4) the 3Rs are explicitly required …

Dilemmas In Digital Abuse, Thomas E. Kadri

Books and Book Chapters

Digital abuse is on the rise. People are increasingly using networked technologies to engage in harassment, stalking, privacy invasions, and surveillance. The law will often adapt to deal with harmful technologies, but is it adapting quickly enough? Is law even the right tool to confront digital abuse? If it is, which laws work best and who should enforce them? One of the pressing challenges of our time is deciding whether and how to regulate digital abuse. Through a range of “dilemmas” involving digital abuse, this book will interrogate responses to various harms enabled by networked technologies, exploring issues related to …

Public Primacy In Corporate Law, Dorothy S. Lund

Seattle University Law Review

This Article explores the malleability of agency theory by showing that it could be used to justify a “public primacy” standard for corporate law that would direct fiduciaries to promote the value of the corporation for the benefit of the public. Employing agency theory to describe the relationship between corporate management and the broader public sheds light on aspects of firm behavior, as well as the nature of state contracting with corporations. It also provides a lodestar for a possible future evolution of corporate law and governance: minimize the agency costs created by the divergence of interests between management and …