Publications

Managing Autonomous Transportation Demand

Author(s): 
Bryant Walker Smith
Publication Date: 
December 18, 2012
Publication Type: 
Academic Writing

“Today we are well underway to a solution of the traffic problem.”1 This claim, made by Robert Moses in 1948, is as true today as it was then. Which is to say, not at all. In the middle of the last century, the preferred solution to “the traffic problem” was more cement: new highways, bridges, and lanes. Read more about Managing Autonomous Transportation Demand

Automated Vehicles are Probably Legal in the United States

Author(s): 
Bryant Walker Smith
Publication Date: 
November 1, 2012
Publication Type: 
Academic Writing

This 2014 law review article provides the most comprehensive discussion to date of whether so-called automated, autonomous, self-driving, or driverless vehicles can be lawfully sold and used on public roads in the United States. The short answer is that the computer direction of a motor vehicle’s steering, braking, and accelerating without real-time human input is probably legal. The long answer, contained in the article, provides a foundation for tailoring regulations and understanding liability issues related to these vehicles. Read more about Automated Vehicles are Probably Legal in the United States

The Life, Death, and Revival of Implied Confidentiality

Author(s): 
Woodrow Hartzog
Publication Date: 
August 7, 2012
Publication Type: 
Academic Writing

The concept of implied confidentiality has deep legal roots, but it has been largely ignored by the law in online-related disputes. A closer look reveals that implied confidentiality has not been developed enough to be consistently applied in environments that often lack obvious physical or contextual cues of confidence, such as the Internet. This absence is significant because implied confidentiality could be one of the missing pieces that help users, courts, and lawmakers meaningfully address the vexing privacy problems inherent in the use of the social web.  Read more about The Life, Death, and Revival of Implied Confidentiality

On Banning Autonomous Lethal Systems: Human Rights, Automation and the Dehumanizing of Lethal Decision-making

Author(s): 
Peter Asaro
Publication Date: 
June 1, 2014
Publication Type: 
Academic Writing

This article considers the recent literature concerned with establishing an international prohibition on autonomous weapon systems. It seeks to address concerns expressed by some scholars that such a ban might be problematic for various reasons. It argues in favour of a theoretical foundation for such a ban based on human rights and humanitarian principles that are not only moral, but also legal ones. In particular, an implicit requirement for human judgement can be found in international humanitarian law governing armed conflict. Read more about On Banning Autonomous Lethal Systems: Human Rights, Automation and the Dehumanizing of Lethal Decision-making

Chain-Link Confidentiality

Author(s): 
Woodrow Hartzog
Publication Date: 
April 24, 2012
Publication Type: 
Academic Writing

Disclosing personal information online often feels like losing control over one’s data forever; but this loss is not inevitable. This essay proposes a “chain-link confidentiality” approach to protecting online privacy. One of the most difficult challenges to guarding privacy in the digital age is the protection of information once it is exposed to other people. A chain-link confidentiality regime would contractually link the disclosure of personal information to obligations to protect that information as the information moves downstream. Read more about Chain-Link Confidentiality

The Social Layer of Freedom of Information Law

Author(s): 
David Levine
Publication Date: 
March 1, 2012
Publication Type: 
Academic Writing

It is now received wisdom that a properly functioning democracy requires transparency and accountability — information shared with the public that allows the public to know what its government is doing. It is equally uncontroversial to say that social media allows for an unprecedented amount of informal but structured dissemination and analysis of information. Despite these two basic points, U.S. freedom of information law has failed to harness the power of these new social media networks and, more importantly, formats in a way that amplifies public knowledge of government information. Read more about The Social Layer of Freedom of Information Law

Valuing Attribution and Publication in Intellectual Property

Publication Date: 
February 27, 2012
Publication Type: 
Academic Writing

This is the third in a series of articles focusing on the experimental economics of intellectual property. In earlier work, we have experimentally studied the ways in which creators assign monetary value to the things that they create. That research has suggested that creators are subject to a systematic bias that leads them to overvalue their work. Read more about Valuing Attribution and Publication in Intellectual Property

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