August 25, 2019

 

Dear Readers,

 

We are proud to bring you our fourth and final issue for the Twenty-Fifth Volume of the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology. Our fourth issue accompanies our most recent Symposium entitled: Social ESI: Know Your Rights, Secure Your Privacy, Express Yourself which occurred in March of this year.

 

Our first article was written by Iphigenia Fisentzou, a graduate of the University of Nottingham UK and Leiden University of The Netherlands. Her article is the winner of the Justis International Law & Technology Writing Competition 2019 in the category of Social Media, Technology and the Law. JOLT partnered with Justis, a legal research platform based in the United Kingdom, for the writing competition in October of last year. Ms. Fisentzou’s article explores the effects of social media in armed conflicts. She argues that social media has increased civilian participation in armed conflicts, challenging traditional notions of “direct participation” in hostilities under international law.

 

Our next article was authored by Ben Barnes (Attorney at Redgrave, LLP), James Sherer (Partner at BakerHostetler), and Aaron Singer (Executive Vice President of Corporate Operations and General Counsel of Boxed). The authors discuss how disruptive technologies modify the way we work and how to utilize those technologies within existing contractual, regulatory, and ethical obligations. The authors explore these topics through a case study of the cloud-based digital platform, Slack. Mr. Sherer and Mr. Barnes also discussed this topic at the JOLT Symposium.

 

Our next article was written by Riccardo Tremolada, an international attorney at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Washington, DC. Mr. Tremolada’s article explores the potential technological threats of the retention of electronic data and the ethical obligations of a lawyer who inadvertently receives metadata.

 

Our final article was written by Jonathan Schnader, an attorney with Ouroboros, LLP. Mr. Schnader focuses on cryptocurrency regulatory compliance, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and social media. He is also a recent graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, where he completed a Master of Laws in National Security. Mr. Schnader’s article discusses the “Internet of Things” and how devices are seamlessly integrating all parts of a person’s life together. Through the use of Alexa as a case study, Mr. Schnader illustrates the potential national security risk of these devices.

 

On behalf of the JOLT staff, I would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to our authors and Symposium speakers for their contributions to this issue and our March Symposium. I would like to thank Eli Hill and James Williams, our Symposium Co-editors, and Catherine Schroeder, the Assistant Symposium Editor, for all of their hard work. I would also like to thank the entire JOLT staff for their tremendous hard work and dedication over the past year. I am proud of the volume they have put together. It has been my honor to serve as Editor-in-Chief of Volume XXV and I wish next year’s Editorial Board and staff a successful and exciting year.

 

Sincerely,

 

Nicole M. Allaband

Blurred Lines: Social Media in Armed Conflict

By Iphigenia Fisentzou

Picking Up the Slack™ Legal and Information Governance Considerations for New(er) Technologies

By James A. Sherer, Aaron Singer & Ben Barnes

The Legal Ethics of Metadata: Accidental Discovery of Inadvertently Sent Metadata and the Ethics of Taking Advantage of Others’ Mistakes

By Riccardo Tremolada

Alexa, Are You a Foreign Agent? Confronting the Risk of Foreign Intelligence Exploration of Private Home Networks, Home Assistants, and Connectivity in the Security Clearance Process

By Jonathan Schnader