Can Law Shape How Societies Innovate Seminar

3 credits · Law School

This seminar examines a question that is implicit in much of innovation law and policy but rarely addressed directly: beyond producing more technological innovation, can law influence the direction in which a society innovates? We will begin with foundational social theory on the relationship between technology and social structure and then proceed through the economics of directed technical change. We will then survey the legal innovation policy toolkit and explore a series of applied domains—disability, clean energy, artificial intelligence, and industrial policy—in which law has shaped (or failed to shape) the trajectory of technological development. The pivotal concept of technology-forcing regulation bridges the theoretical and applied halves of the course, testing whether and under what circumstances regulation can successfully redirect technological trajectories. Enrollment limited. [3]