March 15, 2017
Dear Readers,
We are proud to present the Second Issue of the Twenty-Third Volume of the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology. As the first Legal Journal to publish exclusively online, we strive to present ideas that are both legally and technologically topical. We believe that all of the articles in Issue II provide unique and thoughtful analyses advancing intersections of legal and technological topics. It is our hope that our authors’ unique subject fields and correlating theories advance the debates in each of their respective practice areas.
Our first article is written by Dov Greebaum, Daniel Ben-Ari, Yael Frisch, Adam Lazovski & Uriel Eldan. The article, entitled “A “Danger, Will Robinson”? Artificial Intelligence in the Practice of Law: An Analysis and Proof of Concept Experiment”, tackles the revolutionary topic of artificial intelligence (AI) and its correlating implications in the legal realm and beyond. Within, the authors present their proof of concept developed in collaboration with the IBM Watson team. The authors specifically address AI’s potential usefulness within the realm of intellectual property and fair use in copyright. They utilize this field to exemplify the plausible collaboration between legal professionals and AI in the future.
The second article continues discussions related to the realm of copyright law providing a unique approach to theorizing copyright’s expansion in the digital realm. The article is entitled, “Resisting the Resistance: Resisting Copyright and Promoting Alternatives.” In the article, author Giancarlo Frosio discusses the resistance against the free flow of digital information resulting from the Digital Revolution and the subsequent, “resistance[s] to the resistance.” Mr. Frosio concludes in a remedy for the tension between the Digital Revolution and the expansion of copyright law that focuses on the role of the users in enhancing creative possibilities.
Our third and final article is written by our fellow University of Richmond Law Student, third-year Stephanie Serhan. Ms. Serhan’s article is entitled, “Calling an End to Culling: Predictive Coding and the New Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.” Within, she addresses the utilization of predictive coding in conducting discovery to combat modern informational volume. The specific issue posed is when is the appropriate time at which this method should be implemented. The author discusses the division in various jurisdiction’s rulings on whether “predictive coding should be applied at the outset to the entire universe of documents, or if it should be applied to keyword-culled documents,” concluding that the former is the generally appropriate determination.
I personally would like to extend my gratitude to the JOLT Editorial Board and Staff for their hard work and professionalism in bringing Issue II to publication. Additionally, The Volume XXIII JOLT staff would like to extend our sincerest thanks to all of our Issue II authors, each of whom was a pleasure to work with. As always, JOLT greatly appreciates the ongoing support and guidance of our faculty advisors, Dean Jim Gibson and Professor Chris Cotropia. We would also like to thank Dean Perdue and the rest of the administration for their continued support of the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology. As always, we as a Journal offer our continued gratitude to you, our readers. We hope you find each of these articles intriguing and thought provoking and we are excited to continue that trend in the forthcoming Survey & Issue IV.
Thank you for visiting the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology. We sincerely hope that you enjoy Issue II. As always, your questions, comments, and suggestions are welcomed @jolt.richmond.edu.
Sincerely,
Brandon T. Bybee
Editor-in-Chief, Volume XXIII