The Berkeley Judicial Institute (BJI)’s mission is to build bridges between judges and academics and to promote an ethical, resilient and independent judiciary. Read more about its mission.
Upcoming Events:
24th Annual BCLT/BTLJ Symposium
The Roles of Technology Expertise in Law and Policy
February 27-28, 2020
International House
UC Berkeley
This symposium will explore how expertise about technology and its impacts is generated, introduced, and used in making legal and policy decisions. As more legislation, litigation, and regulation involves technological matters (especially those involving digital technologies), we want to consider how expertise about the design and implications of technology informs decision-making: what has worked well, what has not worked, and how technological expertise can be better used. We aim to examine and assess reliance on expertise about technology across all three branches of government and at the federal, state and local levels. Among the questions we want to ask: What should be considered an issue of technological expertise and what should be considered a question of law or politics? Should Congress recreate an Office of Technology Assessment? What lessons can be learned from the ways federal agencies obtain and use technological expertise? In technologically complex cases, should judges appoint experts, technical advisers, or special masters or rely on attorneys and litigants’ experts?
Co-sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, the Internet Policy Research Initiative at MIT, and the Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown Law
Made possible with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.