CS481

Taught by a team of law and engineering faculty, this unique interdisciplinary course will empower students across the University to work together and exercise leadership on critically important debates at the intersection of law and digital technology. Designed as an accessible survey, the course will equip students with two powerful bases of knowledge: (i) a working technical grasp of key digital technologies (e.g., AI and machine learning, internet structure, encryption, blockchain); and (ii) basic fluency in the key legal frameworks implicated by each (e.g., privacy, cybersecurity, anti-discrimination, free speech, torts, procedural fairness). Substantively, the course will be organized into modules focused on distinct law-tech intersections, including: platform regulation, speech, and intermediary liability; algorithmic bias and civil rights; autonomous systems, safety, and tort liability; "smart" contracting; data privacy and consumer protection; "legal tech," litigation, and access to justice; government use of AI; and encryption and criminal procedure. Each module will be explored via a mix of technical and legal instruction, case study discussions, in-class practical exercises, and guest speakers from industry, government, academe, and civil society. Law students will emerge from the course with a basic understanding of core digital technologies and related legal frameworks and a roadmap of curricular and career pathways one might follow to pursue each area further. Students from elsewhere in the University, from engineering to business to the social sciences and beyond, will emerge with an enhanced capacity to critically assess the legal and policy implications of new digital technologies and the ways society can work to ensure those technologies serve the public good. All students will learn to work together across disciplinary divides to solve technical, legal, and practical problems. There are no course prerequisites, and no prior legal or technical training will be assumed. Students will be responsible for short discussion papers or a final paper. After the term begins, students electing the final paper option can transfer from section 1 to section 2, which meets the R requirement, with consent of the instructor. This class is cross-listed in the University and undergraduates and graduates are eligible to take it. Consent Application for Non-Law Students: We will try to accommodate all students interested in the course. But to facilitate planning and confirm interest, please fill out a consent application ( https://forms.gle/hLAQ7JUm2jFTWQzE9) by March 13, 2020. Applications received after March 13 will be considered on a rolling basis. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation; Written Assignments or Final Paper.