Tech law seminar on reconceptualizing enforcement

From NewlyPossible.org

Key links

  1. Tech law syllabus

Class 01 (Law and technology)

  1. Create a list of 100 potential future technologies. (If you use any sources, cite them.) Bring a printed copy to class.
  2. Read Law and Technology.

Class 02 (Problem-solving overview)

  1. Reflect on how you solve problems. Create a flow chart showing your problem-solving process.
  2. Read the syllabus.
  3. Read Peace Corps Theory of Change and Logic Model.
  4. Read John Gilmore et al., Four Reasons Lawyers Fail to be Viewed as Strategic Advisors.
  5. Read Ben W. Heineman, Jr., William F. Lee, and David B. Wilkins, Lawyers as Professionals and as Citizens: Key Roles and Responsibilities in the 21st Century (pages 9 to 16 only).
  6. Read Questions for the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy.
  7. Create a vignette for class: Prepare a talk that, in no more than 60 seconds, presents an issue to your colleagues. The issue can be a topic, a challenge, or an opportunity. For example, "Covid-19" is a topic, "South Carolina's vaccine rate is too low" is a challenge, and "Can we use what we've learned during the pandemic to reduce the impact of other diseases such as the flu?" is an opportunity. The issue does not need to be legal in nature (although it can be). It does need to be understandable and otherwise accessible to your colleagues -- and your talk should provide the information necessary for your colleagues to meaningfully analyze it. You should also be prepared to answer any questions your colleagues pose about the issue.
  8. Read Sidewalk Manual (created by the 2021 Technology Law class).
  9. Read Rules of the Sidewalk (the instructions I gave to the 2021 class).
  10. Did your predecessors succeed?
  11. What questions would you ask them?

Class 03 (Topic overview)

  1. Read Law and Technology.
  2. This semester we will use a structured problem-solving model to explore the implications of increasing automation and privatization for enforcement, with transport as our primary case study. This model will involve brainstorming challenges, framing an underlying problem, brainstorming solutions, and selecting and developing a best solution, and creating outputs with a view toward outcomes and impacts. ​Your charge is not to solve or even describe this entire topic but rather to make a credible and meaningful contribution to an important dimension. Each step will require substantial research and reflection to combine knowledge, insights, and skills from inside and outside the law. In particular, many but not all of the frameworks, tools, impediments, risks, opportunities, issues, arguments, and strategies that you ultimate identify will involve law.
  3. Read this substantive introduction to our course topic. This introductory draft is merely a cursory overview intended to ground your research and spark your thinking. (You should cite your sources in your more formal deliverables for this course.)
  4. Read How Governments Can Promote Automated Driving, New Mex. L. Rev. (2016) (part III only).
  5. Read How Reporters Can Evaluate Automated Driving Announcements, 2020 Journal of Law and Mobility 1 (2020).
  6. Prepare questions to ask me and Dr. Jeffrey P. Michael to help you understand the fundamental aspects of, research directions in, and potential next steps for our course topic. Adequate preparation will require enough independent research to ensure you can meaningfully and professionally engage with us on this topic, on the substantive introduction that you have read (some of which might be new or unclear to you), and on our relevant work. Save your document as a PDF, name it "Class03 ExpertQuestions.pdf", and upload it here using your UofSC credentials.
  7. Prepare an initial research strategy memo that sketches both a classwide research strategy and an individual research strategy. What are key procedural questions? What are key substantive questions? What subtopics seem especially important or interesting? What information, both in and outside law, would help to better identify problems and, eventually, solutions? What kinds of resources might help to produce that information? You may prepare this memo individually or in a group of your choice. Although I am far more interested in quality than quantity, I suggest about three succinct single-spaced pages per person in either prose or outline form. Save your document as a PDF, name it "Class03 StrategyMemo.pdf", and upload it here using your UofSC credentials.

Class 04 (Preliminary research)

  1. Reflect on our class discussion, and record key notes and observations.
  2. Update the two documents that you prepared for class three based on your reflection.
  3. Review, and if you would like update, the subject you identified in class. (By the way: These are great!)
  4. Review the other subjects in the document. If your subject potentially overlaps with a colleague's subject, ensure that you have coordinated with them by either collaborating or delineating the subjects so that you do not duplicate information. You can contact your colleagues through Outlook or Blackboard.
  5. Research your subject using credible sources.
  6. Create a concise outline that helpfully summarizes the results of your research into your subject. Your outline must include citations and be no more than one single-spaced page. Remember our discussion of essential versus extraneous detail. Acceptable outlines will make a meaningful contribution to our understanding of our course topic.
  7. By Saturday at 5pm eastern: Save your document as a PDF, name it "Class04 SubjectSummary.pdf", and upload it here using your UofSC credentials.
  8. Read all of the outlines, identify connections and gaps, and prepare questions for discussion. You will not present your subject in class; rather, you will answer your classmates' questions. This will require you to know more about your subject than you have shared in your outline.
  9. Document your inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts in class three and in this week prior to class four.

Class 06 (Legal challenges)

TBA

Class 07 (Underlying problem)

TBA

Class 08 (Solutions)

TBA

Class 09 (Solutions)

TBA

Class 10 (Criteria)

TBA

Class 11 (Best solution)

TBA

Class 12 (Best solution)

TBA

Class 13 (Next steps)

TBA