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Volume 22 - Issue 3
Robots and (Indian) Reservations: A Jurisdictional Nightmare Waiting to Happen
Advances in artificial intelligence are expanding the possibilities of robots. Indeed, robots are now engaging in numerous activities previously thought to require human cognition, such as driving cars and diagnosing diseases. Scholars have published numerous articles examining the intersection of law and robots across myriad fields. However, legal scholarship has yet to explore the relationship between robots and federal Indian law. This is a significant oversight because there are 574 federally recognized tribes and over fifty-six million acres of Indian country. Thus, legal issues involving tribes and robots are inevitable. This is the first law review article dedicated to exploring how robots will interact with federal Indian law. To prevent litigation over whether tribes or states have authority over robots, this Article proposes the Tribes and Robots Act (TRA). The TRA affirms tribes have exclusive authority over the robots within Indian country. Accordingly, the TRA provides clear rules that will prevent jurisdictional disputes. Recognizing tribes have exclusive authority over the robots in Indian country also empowers tribes to experiment with robotics policies thereby contributing ideas that can inspire other governments.
Who Holds the Hammer? A Private Ordering Framework as the Key to Carpenter’s Privacy Puzzle
This Note builds on the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Carpenter v. United States, suggesting that its technology-specific approach may be insufficiently elastic to address the complexities of modern data privacy. Through an analysis of several exemplars, this Note advocates for a private ordering framework—where data collectors respond to consumer expectations of privacy through self-regulating practices—as a more adaptive and effective means of safeguarding digital privacy. This approach preserves the third-party doctrine while reducing the burden on courts to draw technological boundaries in a rapidly evolving digital environment.
(The Lack of) Fan Fiction Litigation: Why Do Creators Refrain from Suit?
This Note explores the status of contemporary fan fiction under United States copyright law. It begins by tracing the historical development of fan fiction and then examines fan fiction’s legal treatment in the internet age, with a focus on the potential application of the fair use doctrine. It surveys relevant case law and considers the notable absence of litigation by content creators against fan fiction authors. Finally, it offers a number of possible explanations for this reluctance to pursue legal action.