—Nathalie A. Smuha, University of Toronto A new academic year has kicked off, and schools, colleges and universities around the world are still grappling with the elephant
that swept the room: Generative AI (GenAI). Some institutions have started assuming an open stance, allowing the use of GenAI unless stated otherwise. [...]
New attempts by the U.S. administration to tie federal funding to an ideologically driven “Compact for Academic Excellence” have sent shockwaves through universities, raising
alarms about political steering of curricula and governance. These developments are not isolated: they echo tactics increasingly used worldwide, including within [...]
Campus protests have been testing European universities. The demonstrations at Freie Universität Berlin highlighted the tension between seeing universities as open spaces
for free speech and regarding them primarily as institutions dedicated to academic discourse. [...]
On 26 August 2025, the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, after their son took his life, allegedly under the influence
of ChatGPT. The case has sparked renewed debates about the psychological risks posed by conversational AI. [...]
In July 2025, the International Court of Justice issued its landmark advisory opinion on climate change that is ground-breaking in many respects. Among them is the Court’s
affirmation that environmental protection is a condition for the enjoyment of human rights and its recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment [...]
For more than a century, the legal profession in the United States has tightly controlled the delivery of legal services. Lawyers enjoy a monopoly: only licensed attorneys
can provide legal advice, represent clients in court, and prepare most legal documents for others. [...]
(Image source: Taylor&Francis) (Image source: ) Jewish turns to law – whether as a profession, a means of social mobility and integration, or a venue where emancipatory
claims could be formulated or put forward to negotiate the challenges of modernity – remain largely unexplored in legal-historical research. [...]
This will be part of an issue of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy starring articles by Ilan Wurman and Keith Whittington. My essay is the (much shorter) third
wheel, but here's the Abstract: [...]
