Disruptive Technologies: Their Impact on Our Laws, and the Laws' Impact on the Technology

The advent of a highly disruptive technology necessarily butts up against existing laws, regulations and policies designed for the status quo as well as established businesses. This course takes the examples of driverless cars and artificial intelligence and examines the new and challenging legal questions and opportunities presented by these technologies. We will also discuss how business leaders, lawyers and technologists in these areas can navigate and create legal, regulatory and policy environments designed to help their businesses not only survive but thrive. Through a combination of readings, classroom discussions, expert guest speakers from the relevant technology and policy fields and student presentations, this course explores the promise of these technologies, the legal and regulatory challenges presented and the levers in-house counsel and business leaders in these fields can invoke to better navigate the inevitable obstacles facing these highly disruptive technologies. There are no formal prerequisites in engineering or law required, but students should be committed to pursuing novel questions in an interdisciplinary context. Elements used in grading: class preparation and short reflection papers. This course is open to School of Engineering and graduate students with consent of the instructor.