In an era of corporate surveillance, artificial intelligence, deep fakes, genetic modification, automation, and more, law often seems to take a back seat to rampant technological change. To listen to Silicon Valley barons, there's nothing any of us can do about it. In this riveting work, Joshua A. T. Fairfield calls their bluff. He provides a fresh look at law, at what it actually is, how it works, and how we can create the kind of laws that help humans thrive in the face of technological change. He shows that law can keep up with technology because law is a kind of technology - a social technology built by humans out of cooperative fictions like firms, nations, and money. However, to secure the benefits of changing technology for all of us, we need a new kind of law, one that reflects our evolving understanding of how humans use language to cooperate.
Runaway Technology in The New Yorker
“Fairfield argues that the problem isn’t an inherent one. Case law could keep up with Moore’s law; legislators and the courts just need to learn to ‘think different.’”
Discussing how the rule of law faces challenges with emerging tech at the Future of Privacy Forum
Other Publications by Professor Fairfield
In this compelling examination of the intersection of smart technology and the law, Joshua A. T. Fairfield explains the crisis of digital ownership - how and why we no longer control our smartphones or software-enable devices, which are effectively owned by software and content companies. In two years we will not own our 'smart' televisions which will also be used by advertisers to listen in to our living rooms. In the coming decade, if we do not take back our ownership rights, the same will be said of our self-driving cars and software-enabled homes. We risk becoming digital peasants, owned by software and advertising companies, not to mention overreaching governments. Owned should be read by anyone wanting to know more about the loss of our property rights, the implications for our privacy rights and how we can regain control of both.
Follow me on Twitter for the latest updates on publications and news
-
RT @Smart_Contract: Are NFTs private property, contracts, or something else? What kind of legal rights do NFT owners have? In this… https://t.co/XPHIKito3r -
RT @profjuliet: We had great fun writing this paper and researching the role that "tokens" (broadly defined) play in law. Is an NFT… https://t.co/b1F2GfkW0F
-
RT @Prof_CarlaReyes: Beyond excited to share my paper "Creating Cryptolaw for the Uniform Commercial Code," forthcoming with the… https://t.co/XTerfTmydw
-
RT @profjuliet: I’m grateful to @AmLawInst for highlighting my work! Still taking comments on the article before the editors… https://t.co/EwXOdzIMsm
-
RT @kwerb: Finally getting around to reading @JoshFairfield's important law review article on NFTs. Crypto folks instinctively… https://t.co/emqnaxdc1B
-
RT @Prof_CarlaReyes: @kwerb @JoshFairfield @Andrea_Tosato @carlissc @DrexelKline And also, I sent @JoshFairfield’s paper around to membe… https://t.co/cAQTNHvobT
-
RT @ColinGavaghan: Some pretty perplexing takes on here about NZ being "addicted to lockdowns". You do realise that we've spent the v… https://t.co/MusBlLzj3a
-
RT @SCRForum: @tabali_tigi @wlulaw @JoshFairfield @officer_cia @SethAustinAI shared a research summary of “Convergence of Blockch… https://t.co/eldFnNc9Fc
-
RT @SCRForum: The final post in a three part series by SCRF Researcher @tabali_tigi, diving into @wlulaw professor @JoshFairfield… https://t.co/VMJiumbUFG
-
RT @ConciseAnkur: 2. If you agree like I do with @JoshFairfield’s position that NFTs are goods subject UCC Article 2 then the platfor… https://t.co/iENHlFrbZ0
Medium Publications
Professor Fairfield is the William Donald Bain Professor of Law at Washington and Lee School of Law in Lexington, Virginia
