AI has been heralded as a potentially revolutionary force for both legal practice and access to justice. At the same time, numerous lawyers and self-represented litigants have been making the headlines for inadvertently citing bogus case law hallucinated by generative AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT.
As the development and adoption of artificial intelligence continues to accelerate, law schools face the challenge of preparing students to respond to new opportunities and risks posed by AI, as well as other emerging technologies.
Launching this fall, a new Allard Law initiative focused on technology, law and society will advance the law school’s work to future-proof legal education. The initiative will provide support for teaching, research and multidisciplinary collaboration.
“This timely new initiative builds upon Allard Law’s strengths in law and technology, and will ensure we have the capacity to quickly respond to future technological changes,” says Allard Law Dean Ngai Pindell.
Jon Festinger, KC, an expert on law and tech who has taught courses on topics including digital media and video game law at Allard Law since 1992, will oversee the initiative’s activities. This year, he’s launching a course on AI and the Law as part of the new initiative. Festinger’s course will explore the impact of AI on law and society, issues in regulating AI and the use of AI in legal practice.
But while AI is currently the hottest topic in tech and will be an initial focus for the initiative, the overall scope will be broader. “We don’t want to limit ourselves,” says Festinger. “As hard as it is to imagine, there is something beyond AI that we haven’t seen yet. The rule of law is the long game.”
More support for teaching law and tech
The initiative is launching amid strong student demand for more courses and opportunities related to technological developments and the law, says Dr. Graham Reynolds, who helped shape the new program during his recent term as Allard Law’s Associate Dean, Research and International.
Plans are underway to expand on the law school’s current offerings to create new courses exploring the legal and policy implications of technological change, with the potential longer-term goal of launching a new specialization in technology, law and society. “This will position us as leaders in law and technology,” says Reynolds. “We have so many faculty members doing so much incredible work in this area.” The law school currently offers numerous courses at the intersection of law and tech, including courses focused on AI and criminal justice, intellectual property law, e-commerce, cyberspace law and video game law.
Dr. Moira Aikenhead (LLM ’15, PhD ’22), a lecturer at Allard Law, applies a technology lens in all her courses, drawing examples from her own research on technology-facilitated gender violence, including abuses facilitated by social media. In her Evidence course this spring, Aikenhead will also be teaching her students about challenges courts increasingly face when dealing with digital evidence, which is likely to include an increasing amount of AI-generated content in the future such as “deepfake” video and audio recordings that can appear highly authentic despite being created by AI.
“Much of the recent case law dealing with the authentication and weight of digital evidence demonstrates how counsel and judges often fail to consider and apply mandatory legislation and rules of evidence, often admitting and considering digital evidence without any robust analysis of whether that evidence is genuine," says Aikenhead. "There is a significant need for a proactive approach to dealing with digital evidence as AI technologies become more accessible and convincing.”
Recognizing the emerging challenges AI poses, in 2024, Allard Law Professor Benjamin Perrin launched the UBC AI & Criminal Justice Initiative, which includes an upper year seminar exploring the promise and perils of AI in the criminal justice system. He’s also leading a research project on police uses of AI.
Perrin says privacy, automated bias against marginalized communities, Indigenous data sovereignty, and the intersection of AI and mental health are just a few of the major issues that future legal professionals will increasingly need to address – all of which will require increased collaboration between technology and legal experts.
“Everyone has a stake in these discussions, but many people feel intimidated by gaps in their knowledge,” says Perrin. “We need to be bringing people to the table who have an interest in making sure that important questions about the future of criminal justice are not decided solely by Silicon Valley.”
A hub for innovation and collaboration
Another goal of this initiative is to build on and expand the range of interdisciplinary collaborations involving Allard Law faculty and students.
Allard Law faculty members are currently involved in numerous multidisciplinary projects focused on emerging technologies. For example, Dr. Cristie Ford, an expert on innovation and regulation, lends her expertise to UBC’s TrustML (Trustworthiness of Machine-Learning-Based Systems) Research Cluster, supporting the development of machine learning systems that are reliable, secure and ethical. Through a collaboration with UBC’s Emerging Media Lab, Festinger and Professor Nikos Harris, KC (LLB ’95) developed a moot simulator last year. This year, they’re developing a prototype AI tool for student legal clinics, designed to help students develop legal reasoning and analytical skills.
Building on these strengths, the initiative presents “a huge opportunity to spur greater interdisciplinarity,” says Festinger, and Vancouver is the ideal place for this work. “The video game, film and music industries – it’s all here in Vancouver, and that really allows us the freedom to create courses and do research that’s relevant to these industries and the legal community.”
In the works are plans to host community events that bring together academics and the legal and tech communities. In future, Festinger also hopes to see a multidisciplinary course for graduate students from law and STEM programs and an externship program that will give law students the opportunity to work directly with tech companies. In addition, a proposed new course for legal professionals, in conjunction with UBC Extended Learning, would teach participants how to design AI workflows to support legal practice. “The idea is to show you how to design an AI that works for you,” explains Festinger.
Festinger notes that there are also plans to bring in additional expert guest lecturers and visiting scholars who will offer courses and deliver public lectures, complementing the ongoing work within the faculty. Allard Law is already a hub for speakers whose work focuses on law and tech. This year, speakers include UBC Okanagan professor Dr. Wendy Wong, author of We the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age, and University of Melbourne law lecturer Dr. Megan Prictor, an expert in law and health technologies.
Looking ahead
As the new initiative begins to take form, remaining flexible and attuned to new developments in law and technology will be key to its success. That will mean working closely with the broader legal and tech communities. If you're interested in learning more or contributing to the initiative, you're warmly invited to reach out to Jon Festinger.
