Law & Technology

Innocent Until Predicted Guilty: How Premature Predictive Policing Can Lead to a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Juvenile Delinquency

Nadia Rossbach

Abstract Predictive policing is an innovative, evolving approach to crime prevention that law enforcement has recently embraced. These programs are designed to detect crime patterns by employing machine-learned algorithms to identify high-crime areas as well as likely offenders. In doing so, law enforcement hopes to implement a proactive approach in which officers will be able […]

The Property Law of Tokens

Juliet M. Moringiello and Christopher K. Odinet

Abstract Non-fungible tokens—or NFTs, as they are better known—have taken the world by storm. The idea behind an NFT is that by owning a certain thing (specifically, a digital token that is tracked on a blockchain), one can hold property rights in something else (either a real or an intangible asset). In the early part […]

The Writing on the [Fire]wall: “Mission Critical” Cybersecurity Derivative Litigation is on Delaware’s Horizon

E. Paige Williams

Abstract The impact of the information economy during the last quarter century has been dramatic. But for all its glory, the information economy also presents vulnerabilities: a cybersecurity breach can materially affect firm value. Although some security breaches may be inevitable in the modern world, courts are increasingly considering the question of whether the corporation’s […]

“You’ve Got [Open] [E]mail”—The Unknown Email Privacy Issue and the Need for the Stored Communications Act to Reflect the Modern Utility of the Inbox

James Palanica

Abstract This Note identifies the divided jurisprudence surrounding the protection of opened emails from unauthorized access under the Stored Communications Act and advocates for the interpretation espoused by the Fourth Circuit’s 2019 decision in Hately v. Watts. The traditional view of the Stored Communications Act, as employed by the Department of Justice, neither sufficiently protects […]

Implications of the Third-Party Doctrine: The New Age of Digital Data and Carpenter

Chelsea Ann Padgett

Abstract This Note addresses cell-site location information and the third-partydoctrine while deeply analyzing the U.S. Supreme Court’s recentdecision in Carpenter v. United States. This case has proven itself quiteuninformative as it left the third-party doctrine in a state of disarray andconfusion. This Note argues that there is no Fourth Amendmentprotection for information held and developed […]

The Algorithmic Divide and Equality in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Peter K. Yu

Abstract In the age of artificial intelligence, highly sophisticated algorithmshave been deployed to provide analysis, detect patterns, optimizesolutions, accelerate operations, facilitate self-learning, minimize humanerrors and biases, and foster improvements in technological products andservices. Notwithstanding these tremendous benefits, algorithms andintelligent machines do not provide equal benefits to all. Just as the“digital divide” has separated those with […]

Desirable Inefficiency

Written by: Paul Ohm & Jonathan Frankle

Abstract Computer scientists have recently begun designing systems that appear, at least at first glance, to be surprisingly, wastefully inefficient. A stock exchange forces all electronic trades to travel through a thirty-eight mile length of fiber-optic cable coiled up in a box; the Bitcoin protocol compels participants to solve difficult yet useless math problems with […]

Digitizing the Schoolhouse Gate: Protecting Students’ Off-Campus Cyberspeech by Switching the Safety on Tinker’s Trigger

Written by: Joshua Rieger

Abstract Secondary-school students regularly engage in cyberspeech both inside and outside the schoolhouse gate. Internet-era forms of communication allow these students to produce off-campus cyberspeech that can easily be accessed or brought onto campus by other students or faculty. As early as the 1990s, public-school administrations began punishing students for off-campus cyberspeech, accessed or brought […]

Privacy, Mass Intrusion and the Modern Data Breach

Written by: Jon L. Mills & Kelsey Harclerode

Abstract Massive data breaches have practically become a daily occurrence. These breaches reveal intrusive private information about individuals, as well as priceless corporate secrets. Ashley Madison’s breach ruined lives and resulted in suicides. The HSBC breach, accomplished by one of their own, revealed valuable commercial information about the bank and personal information about HSBC customers. […]

Policing, Technology, and Doctrinal Assists

Written by: Bennett Capers

Abstract Sounding the alarm about technology, policing, and privacy has become an almost daily occurrence. We are told that the government’s use of technology as a surveillance tool is an “insidious assault on our freedom.” That it is “nearly impossible to live today without generating thousands of records about what we watch, read, buy and […]

Byte Marks: Making Sense of New F.R.C.P. 37(e)

Written by: Charles Yablon

Abstract New FRCP 37(e) limits severe, case ending sanctions for lost electronically stored information (ESI) to situations where a party acted with “intent to deprive” other parties of the use of that information. But it makes no change in existing preservation duties and never explains how “intent” is to be determined for the corporation and […]

Black Box Tinkering: Beyond Disclosure in Algorithmic Enforcement

Written by: Maayan Perel & Niva Elkin-Koren

Abstract The pervasive growth of algorithmic enforcement magnifies current debates regarding the virtues of transparency. Using codes to conduct robust online enforcement not only amplifies the settled problem of magnitude, or “too-much-information,” often associated with present- day disclosures, but it also imposes practical difficulties on relying on transparency as an adequate check for algorithmic enforcement. […]

Pierce Giboney, Don't Ground Me Bro! Private Ownership of Airspace and How It Invalidates the FAA's Blanket Prohibition On Low Altitude Commercial Drone Operations

Abstract In years past, society has typically associated the word “drone” with the War on Terror and far-off battlefields. With the advent of the smart phone revolution, however, the once prohibitive costs of the technology have decreased to a level the general public can afford. As a consequence, a rising number of entrepreneurs associate the […]

F. Patrick Hubbard, "Sophisticated Robots": Balancing Liability, Regulation, and Innovation

Our lives are being transformed by large, mobile, “sophisticated robots” with increasingly higher levels of autonomy, intelligence, and interconnectivity among themselves. For example, driverless automobiles are likely to become commercially available within a decade. Many people who suffer physical injuries from these robots will seek legal redress for their injury, and regulatory schemes are likely […]