We are a month away from the start of the Fall term. All of us in the legal academy are trying to figure out how to respond to the developments with AI. With that in mind, I have decided to publicly distribute the letter I have sent to the students in my Evidence Law class. As I’ve said before, we’re all in this together. Here it is:
Good afternoon all,
I hope you are enjoying the summer. I am reaching out because I have a big announcement about the coming term.
As you know, we live in exciting times. I mean that both ironically and unironically. Technological developments have, in some ways, produced new opportunities for teaching and learning the law. I am quite enthused about some of the possibilities for the legal profession, for the provision of legal services, and for access to justice.1
But I am not interested in producing graduates who can do nothing more than feed prompts into a program. If the whole enterprise of legal education means anything at all, it has to mean producing graduates who are able to do the cognitive work of legal analysis on their own. A student who is unable to engage in sophisticated legal reasoning without technological assistance is utterly incapable of distinguishing between a good legal analysis/argument, a bad legal analysis/argument, and a great legal analysis/argument. Such a person may have any number of “people skills”, and those will come in handy no matter what choice of profession one chooses, but he or she will have little or nothing to offer to clients and courts by way of legal expertise. Clients, firms, and courts need lawyers to possess judgment - concerning, among other things, which arguments to run and how to present them.
Acquiring judgment means doing the cognitive work – trying, sometimes failing, always struggling. What legal education offers is a cloistered place to struggle. It is important, especially in your formative years, that you have places where you and your colleagues are undistracted by the seductions of easy, mechanically churned-out answers produced on demand – places where you must make sense of material without technological assistance. I would add that the ability to pay attention to (frankly, sometimes boring) material, and distinguish important ideas and themes from trivial ones, is also a crucial skill for law students and lawyers.2
I will now cut to the chase. This coming term, Evidence Law will be electronic device-free, meaning that students will not be permitted to use laptops, smartphones, smartwatches, smart-glasses, or any other ‘smart’ doodads that happen to be in circulation. Yes, that means your notes will need to be taken by hand. In-class problems will be distributed in such a way that you do not need laptops. Since I do not use slides, this policy will not affect access to them.
For the avoidance of doubt, the ‘no-device’ rule pertains to classes and not to the final examination. Students will continue to be able to use laptops when writing the final, though I would parenthetically note that the exams will be ‘secured’ (i.e., no access to internet or hard drives), and that students will, as per usual, not be permitted to access devices other than laptops during the exam.
Furthermore, the ‘no-device’ rule should not discourage students from using technological means outside of class for their personal study. I understand that a new ‘Ethical AI Usage Policy’ is currently under development by the College of Law. You will (naturally) be expected to comply with that.
I am aware that, for many of you, this will be the first time you have engaged in classroom instruction without recourse to an electronic device. For what it’s worth, I expect that many law school classes around North America will ultimately take a similar step, if not now then soon. (Consider, by way of illustration, the University of Chicago Law School’s recent announcement.)3 Many of you will want to practice your handwriting. Obviously, those of you with a disability are entitled, under College and University regulations, to seek an accommodation.
Needless to say, this policy will entail further adjustments on my side. I am presently reviewing the syllabus, and will make further announcements in due course.
Welcome to the future. I hope you are all well, and I look forward to seeing you in the new term.
Kind regards,
MP
