Monthly archives: September, 2017

Picturing the Law

While Lyonette Louis-Jacques was conducting research on the subject of illustrated law books, she identified the extensive work of her colleague, Michael Widener – Yale Lillian Goldman Law Library. Mike has shared his research in a number of presentations and lectures that Lyo identifies for us, in addition to sharing her considerable insights and own work on this subject. The confluence of their respective work provides us with a “sense of wonder and play, things that can be in short supply in today’s world.”

Subjects: Comparative/Foreign Law, Legal Research

25 for 25: A Librarian’s Free Law Awakening

For law librarians, the past 25 years have engaged us in a journey from fee based access to the law via books, followed by dedicated terminals and CDs, to online portal services, to the current state of far more open, accessible and free access to the law. Sarah Glassmeyer’s perspective on this journey helps us focus on information access as a key facet of justice, highlighting the critical foundation that Cornell’s Legal Information Institute established for our communities of best practice to follow as we continue to pursue complete and free access to all facets of legal information on the Internet.

Subjects: Legal Education, Legal Research, Technology Trends

AI And The Rule Of Law

Our exposure to and reliance upon an increasingly ubiquitous range of technology is intertwined with issues related to intellectual property law. With smartphone cameras used to capture and share what their respective creators otherwise claim as intellectual property, to the devices, services and applications that comprise the Internet of Things (IoT), Ken Grady raises significant and as yet unresolved concerns about how the rule of law will be applied in response to the use, and misuse, of AI and digital personal assistants.

Subjects: AI, Intellectual Property, Leadership, Legal Research

The Fight to Bring Legal Research to the Front

Law librarian and professor Brandon Adler identifies core issues to support educating third year law students in a wide range of reliable free and low cost legal resources. Many law librarians acknowledge that there is a lack of awareness and use of alternative legal resources, with the law student community as well across a large swath of attorneys in firms both large and small.

Subjects: Law Librarians, Legal Education, Legal Research Training

The Road To Intelligent Legal Software

Legal AI pioneer Itai Gurari’s article is a commentary and a lessons learned that is critical to our communities of best practice as we seek to effectively assess both the promise and significant drawbacks of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the context of the legal sector. As Gurari clearly articulates, building reliably intelligent legal software requires more than just the application of the latest trendy tools. It requires building systems that are robust and that respect the use cases for which they are designed.

Subjects: AI, Legal Technology, Technology Trends

The ‘internet of things’ is sending us back to the Middle Ages

The Internet of Things (IoT) has permeated all facets of our lives – professional, family, social – more quickly and expansively than many are willing to acknowledge. The repercussions of IoT are multifaceted – and directly impact issues that span privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property rights, civil liberties and the law. Law and technology scholar Joshua A.T. Fairfield discusses the ramifications of allowing our environment to be seeded with sensors that gather our personal data using a plethora of devices we now consider to be essential conveniences.

Subjects: AI, Cybersecurity, Intellectual Property, Privacy