Link to SSRN Author Page and Publications: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=5668177
Selected Publications below:
Selected Publications below:
|
Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence and the Law
Edited by Ryan Abbott and Elizabeth Rothman Publication Date: 2025 ISBN: 978 1 03533 689 0 Extent: 470 pp This comprehensive Encyclopedia provides a groundbreaking exploration of the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) technology on legal systems worldwide. With over 100 expert-authored entries, the volume delivers authoritative analysis of how rapidly evolving AI technologies intersect with established legal frameworks. The text covers a broad spectrum of topics, from foundational AI concepts to its most advanced applications in legal practice, while addressing the technology''s implications across major areas of law. |
|
Research Handbook on the Law of Artificial Intelligence, Edward Elgar Publishing
Current and Future Directions, 2nd edition Edited by Woodrow (Woody)Barfield, has served as Professor of Engineering and has been a senior editor or associate editor of several journals in engineering and law and Ugo Pagallo, Full Professor of Jurisprudence and Legal Informatics, Department of Law, University of Turin, Italy Publication Date: June 2025 ISBN: 978 1 03531 648 9 Extent: 796 pp Chapter 29, Ryan Abbott and Elizabeth Rothman, When machines create: AI authorship and copyright law |
|
|
The Global Community Lab Report on Policy and Governance Implications of Open Foundation AI Models
By Elizabeth Rothman, Kavya Pearlman, Nandita Rao Narla. Metaverse Safety Week 2024., XRSI. The final day of Metaverse Safety Week 2024 convened global experts to address the governance implications of open foundation AI models in the metaverse. The track explored critical aspects of balancing innovation with ethical governance while developing clear standards and actionable policies for shared responsibility across stakeholders. The discussions revealed that AI model openness exists on a spectrum from closed proprietary systems to fully open frameworks. This nuanced understanding highlighted varying implications for control, auditability, and community participation at each level. Key stakeholder responsibilities emerged as critical components, with developers focusing on bias reduction and ethical design, platforms ensuring documentation standards and feedback mechanisms, and policymakers creating adaptive regulatory frameworks. Implementation recommendations spanned technical, policy, and operational domains, emphasizing transparent audit systems, regulatory sandboxes, and diverse advisory councils. |
|
Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Values 2025
Contributor to the AI and Democratic Values Index is a comprehensive review of AI policies and practices worldwide. Prepared by the Research Group of the Center for AI and Digital Policy, AIDV provides the basis to compare national AI policies, to assess progress, and to identify emerging trends. CAIDP has published the report annually since 2021. The fifth edition (AIDV 2025) is almost 1,500 pages long, contains more then 7,000 footnotes, and reflects the contributions or more than 1,000 participants in the CAIDP policy clinics from over 120 countries. Dr. April Yoder is the Editor-in-Chief of the 2025 edition. |
|
Research Handbook on Law and Utilitarianism
Edited by Guillaume Tusseau, Professor of Public Law, Sciences Po Law School, Member of the Institut Universitaire de France and of the Centre Bentham, France Chapter 20 - A utilitarian approach to copyright law and generative artificial intelligence Ryan Abbott and Elizabeth Rothman Publication Date: 2024 ISBN: 978 1 78990 171 9 Extent: 486 pp "The Research Handbook on Law and Utilitarianism sheds light on contemporary legal culture, and the ways in which it interacts with theories of justice." |
|
|
COPYRIGHT PROTECTION FOR WORKS GENERATED
BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TechREG CHRONICLE, Competition Policy International, OCTOBER 2024 By Ryan Abbott & Elizabeth Rothman This article argues that AI-generated works should receive copyright protection because they are precisely the sort of things designed to be protected. Copyright law, while often framed in terms of benefiting authors, has primarily broader and more utilitarian social goals: promoting the generation and dissemination of works. While critics are of course correct that AI is not motivated to work by the prospect of copyright protection, that argument is a straw man. Rather than motivating machines directly, copyright protection will motivate people upstream of the creative act to use and develop AI that will result in more production and dissemination of works. |
|
May 20, 2024, American Bar Association International Law News Spring Edition
|
|
|
2023 Metaverse Safety Week Roundtable Report, XRSI.ORG The Global Policy & Regulations roundtable at Metaverse Safety Week 2023 was pivotal in fostering dialogue and laying the groundwork for future collaborative efforts. It underscored the need for collective action in shaping the future of AI and emerging technologies. The insights and strategies discussed are expected to significantly influence the journey towards a safe, innovative, and ethically responsible digital future in 2024 and beyond, balancing the critical themes of AI governance with the broader objectives of sustainable and inclusive global development. Elizabeth Rothman, Senior Advisor, XRSI Chair - Global Policy and Regulations, MSW2023 Burcu Kilic, CIGI | Senior Advisor, XRSI Co-Chair - Global Policy and Regulations, MSW2023 |
|
|
January 18, 2023, Disrupting Creativity: Copyright Law in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence
Fla. L. Rev. Vol. 75, Issue 6, 2023 Ryan Abbott and Elizabeth Rothman This Article argues that American copyright law is, and has traditionally been, primarily about benefiting the public interest rather than benefiting authors directly. As a result, AI-generated works are precisely the sort of thing the system aims to protect. Protection will encourage people to develop and use creative AI which will result in the production and dissemination of new works. Taken further, attributing authorship to AI that functionally does the work of a traditional author will promote transparency, efficient allocations of rights, and even counterintuitively protect human authors. AI-generated works also promise to radically impact other fundamental tenets of copyright law such as infringement, protection of style, and fair use. How the law should respond to AI activity has lessons more broadly for thinking about what rules should apply to people, machines, and other sorts of artificial authors.
|
|
|
April 1, 2023, AIPLA CLE Material Paper, AI-Generated Works and Intellectual Property Law
March 17, 2023. California Lawyer Daily Journal, Determining human creative control in AI-generated works is futile
AI systems are challenging traditional notions of authorship and creativity and denying copyright protection to these works solely because a human was not involved in their creation, which could hinder the growth and development of AI technologies and may be contrary to the broader goals of copyright law.
AI systems are challenging traditional notions of authorship and creativity and denying copyright protection to these works solely because a human was not involved in their creation, which could hinder the growth and development of AI technologies and may be contrary to the broader goals of copyright law.
March 1, 2023, European Intellectual Property Review (EIPR), AI-Generated Output and Intellectual Property Rights: Takeaways from the Artificial Inventor Project
45 E.I.P.R., Issue 4 (2023) Recent technological advances have taken creative and inventive AI systems from academic novelties to meaningful drivers of commercial value. This has increased the importance of dealing with longstanding but unresolved legal questions about the treatment of AI-generated works and inventions created without traditional human authors and inventors. This article explores these questions in the context of the Artificial Inventor Project, which includes a series of pro bono legal test cases seeking intellectual property rights for AI-generated output.
45 E.I.P.R., Issue 4 (2023) Recent technological advances have taken creative and inventive AI systems from academic novelties to meaningful drivers of commercial value. This has increased the importance of dealing with longstanding but unresolved legal questions about the treatment of AI-generated works and inventions created without traditional human authors and inventors. This article explores these questions in the context of the Artificial Inventor Project, which includes a series of pro bono legal test cases seeking intellectual property rights for AI-generated output.
January 23, 2023, SSRN, Disrupting Creativity: Copyright Law in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence
This Article argues that American copyright law is, and has been traditionally, primarily about benefiting the public interest rather than benefiting authors directly. As a result, AI-generated works are precisely the sort of thing the system was designed to protect. Protection will encourage people to develop and use creative AI which will result in the production and dissemination of new works. Taken further, attributing authorship to AI when an AI has functionally done the work of a traditional author will promote transparency, efficient allocations of rights, and even counterintuitively protect human authors. AI-generated works also promise to radically impact other fundamental tenets of copyright law such as infringement, protection of style, and fair use. How the law should respond to AI activity has lessons more broadly for thinking about what rules should apply to people, machines, and other sorts of artificial authors.
This Article argues that American copyright law is, and has been traditionally, primarily about benefiting the public interest rather than benefiting authors directly. As a result, AI-generated works are precisely the sort of thing the system was designed to protect. Protection will encourage people to develop and use creative AI which will result in the production and dissemination of new works. Taken further, attributing authorship to AI when an AI has functionally done the work of a traditional author will promote transparency, efficient allocations of rights, and even counterintuitively protect human authors. AI-generated works also promise to radically impact other fundamental tenets of copyright law such as infringement, protection of style, and fair use. How the law should respond to AI activity has lessons more broadly for thinking about what rules should apply to people, machines, and other sorts of artificial authors.
December 11, 2022, Global AI Ethics Presentation, African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), AI4D Africa PhD Academy
August 8, 2022, SSRN, The Revolution Has Arrived: AI Authorship and Copyright Law
May 17, 2022, LexDAOism, Substack, Five Guidelines for Maintaining Attorney-Client Privilege in the Metaverse
As otherwise privileged conversations enter digital environments it is important to examine guidelines and internal law firm policies to ensure the communications remain protected.
As otherwise privileged conversations enter digital environments it is important to examine guidelines and internal law firm policies to ensure the communications remain protected.
July 23, 2019, Kevin MD, Understanding professional liability insurance in physician employment contracts
An excerpt from Physician Employment Contracts, The Missing Module: A comprehensive introduction to physician agreements written for doctors.
An excerpt from Physician Employment Contracts, The Missing Module: A comprehensive introduction to physician agreements written for doctors.
March 1, 2019, Book Publication, Advocate Press, Physician Employment Contracts, The Missing Module: A comprehensive introduction to physician agreements written for doctors.
A handbook for doctors at all stages of practice.
The majority of American medical schools do not provide any formal education with regard to signing a contract to provide medical services. Despite the lengthy medical training process, the skills and language required for physicians to protect themselves legally while practicing medicine are not incorporated into the curriculum. As a result, physicians graduate unprepared to evaluate employment contracts upon entering the workforce.
A handbook for doctors at all stages of practice.
The majority of American medical schools do not provide any formal education with regard to signing a contract to provide medical services. Despite the lengthy medical training process, the skills and language required for physicians to protect themselves legally while practicing medicine are not incorporated into the curriculum. As a result, physicians graduate unprepared to evaluate employment contracts upon entering the workforce.