September 19, 2025
About the Colloquium
Advances in data science and artificial intelligence present remarkable opportunities for the world’s existing knowledge and creativity to benefit the public. But these advances are also creating new harms and could threaten to compete with human creators in ways we have not experienced before. This mix of potential benefits and harms presents an opportunity to reconsider the very normative foundations of copyright law and whether the law as it exists is well formulated to reinforce those foundations.
This colloquium seeks to bring together scholars who study copyright with scholars who focus on private-law theory from a human-centered perspective. Our hope is that this will facilitate an interesting dialogue and helpful cross-fertilization.
Organizing Committee
Molly Van Houweling
Harold C. Hohbach Distinguished Professor of Patent Law and Intellectual Property
Berkeley Law
Pamela Samuelson
Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law
Berkeley Law
Hanoch Dagan
Elizabeth J. Boalt Distinguished Professor of Law and Founding Director, Berkeley Center for Private Law Theory
Berkeley Law
Agenda
Welcome and Continental Breakfast – 8:30 am – 9:00 am
PANEL I – 9:00 am – 10:30 am (90 min, 30 minutes each)
The history and doctrine of author-centered copyright
1. Jane Ginsburg
2. Roy Kreitner
3. Hanoch Dagan/Molly van Houweling
PANEL II – 10:30 am – 11:30 am (60 min, 30 minutes each)
AI and authorship
1. Mark Gergen
2. Matthew James Sag
Break – 11:30-11:45
PANEL III – 11:45-1:15 pm (90 min, 30 minutes each)
Artistic practice and authorial autonomy in the AI age
1. Margaret Chon
2. Jessica Sibley
3. Erik Stallman
Lunch/Walk – 1:15-2:15
PANEL IV – 2:15-3:45 (90 min, 30 minutes each)
Normative and doctrinal implications of technological disruption
1. Robert Merges
2. Oren Bracha
3. Jennifer Urban
Break – 3:45-4:00
PANEL V – 4:00-5:00 (60 minutes, 30 minutes each)
Collective licensing and alternatives for AI use of human works
1. Abhishek Nagaraj
2. Pamela Samuelson
Closing – 6:00 pm
Dinner for those who can stay
Participants
Margaret Chon (Seattle)
Hanoch Dagan (Berkeley)
Mark Gergen (Berkeley)
Jane Ginsburg (Columbia)
Roy Kreitner (Tel Aviv)
Robert Merges (Berkeley)
Abhishek Nagaraj (Berkeley)
Pamela Samuelson (Berkeley)
Jessica Silbey (Boston)
Erik Stallman (Berkeley)
Jennifer Urban (Berkeley)
Molly Van Houweling (Berkeley)
Papers can only be accessed with a password. Please click the page above to access the papers.
Copyright Colloquium Photos
