Woodrow Hartzog on ‘Juris Machina: Legal Aspects of Robotics’

On March 31, We Robot 2016 will host four workshops designed by experts to help people from other disciplines get up to speed in their specialty. We hope these workshops will be attended by people who want to learn about the topics, and by people willing to share their expertise with both experts and neophytes.

What is a tort? Can a robot commit one? What other laws might robots break? Which agencies in Washington’s alphabet soup like the FTC, FAA, NHTSA, and others matter for robotics and why? Is it better to lay out specific, intricate rules for robots, or should we just require that they “act reasonable?” This session will provide a foundation for asking and answering legal and policy research questions related robotics. It will cover basic legal concepts as applied to sophisticated computational technology. Not only will we cover the basic structures and laws relevant to robots, but we will review some basic principles behind why these laws exist, and what kinds of laws are useful in various contexts. The goal for this session will be to equip you with the tools necessary to ascertain the merits of robotics laws and propose alternatives for the stinkers.

Professor Woodrow Hartzog will join We Robot 2016 to hold a workshop on Juris Machina: Legal Aspects of Robotics on Thursday, March 31st at 9:30 AM at the University of Miami Newman Alumni Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Prof. Hartzog is an internationally-recognized expert in the area of privacy, media, and robotics law. He has been quoted or referenced in numerous articles and broadcasts, including NPR, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. Prof. Hartzog’s work has been published in numerous scholarly publications such as the Columbia Law Review, California Law Review, and Michigan Law Review and popular national publications such as Wired, Bloomberg, New Scientist, The Atlantic, and The Nation. He is also a contributor to Forbesand a frequent guest contributor to LinkedIn, Concurring Opinions, and other popular blogs. Before joining the faculty at Cumberland School of Law, Prof. Hartzog worked as a trademark attorney at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia, and as an associate attorney at Burr & Forman LLP in Birmingham, Alabama. He also served as a clerk for the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., and was a Roy H. Park Fellow, at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prof. Hartzog is an Affiliate Scholar at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. He also serves on the advisory board of the Future of Privacy Forum.