Individual Projects
Robots Among Us: Harmonizing Laws for Non-Human Citizens
This project looks at the impact of human-like qualities and artificial intelligence on the public and private international legal systems, with a particular focus on harmonizing the laws related to AI and robot citizenship and rights. This project will produce model laws, as suggested by the UN’s Governing AI for Humanity Report, to guide discussion on how the law can and should respond to possible future relationships between humans and robots. Areas of private international law include domicile, marriage, adoption, reproduction, property, agency, and inheritance. Areas of public international law include anti-slavery law, humanitarian law, civil and political rights, peace and security, and anti-discrimination. This project explores issues such as the effects of humans granting robots rights and responsibilities under the law and considers the legal and social implications of changing our existing laws and policies to accommodate our new relationships with robots.
Citizenship on the Edge: Vanishing Nations and Space Stations
This project examines how countries reconstituting because of climate change, including the creation of artificial islands, as well as the emergence of new countries or political entities in space, will reshape concepts of citizenship and statehood under international law, including space law, such as the Artemis Accords and Outer Space Treaty, the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, the Law of the Sea, and other frameworks. This project imagines what reforms to citizenship law and human rights might be necessary to accommodate emerging, and changing, states, as well as the impact of robots and artificial intelligence on statehood in hostile environments, such as space or underwater.
Citizenship and migration in the age of the panopticon: Biometrics and AI
This project begins by assuming that technological changes, particularly advances in artificial intelligence for biometrics, will reshape global citizenship, migration, and refugee law by enabling hugely expanded surveillance and predictive capabilities for governments. It examines the effects of these technologies on passport control, citizenship applications, refugee status determination, migration tracking, naturalization procedure, and civil registration, including their impact on access to citizenship and essential documents. It looks at the issuance of smart cards and chips as part of state surveillance, and the effect these technologies will have on nation-state citizenship law and the international system of borders. It also examines the future of voting laws and regulations in a world where governments may be able to predict your vote before you make it.