Front And Centaur

 My brilliant colleague, Bill Tomlinson, and I were delighted when the Texas A&M Journal of Property Law ("TAMUJPL") decided to publish four of our biodiversity law articles in a special issue.  The four articles can be found here:

Invasives: The How of Biodiversity Loss 

Population: The Who of Biodiversity Law 

Pollution: The What of Biodiversity Loss 

Overharvesting: The Why of Biodiversity Loss

The excellent editors penned a thoughtful introduction to the issue in which they announced a paradigm shift toward acceptance of articles produced by what Ethan Mollick has named the "Centaur" method.  Bill and I have been experimenting since 2022 on a project of integrating artificial intelligence ("AI") into the process of scholarly research and writing.  We even published an article in 2023 on how to write with AI, entitled "ChatGPT and Works Scholarly: Best Practices and Legal Pitfalls in Writing with AI".  This TAMUJPL special issue marks an important milestone in our project.

So, it was gratifying to see coverage of the special TAMUJPL issue, the special introductory editorial article, and our four articles in ABOVE THE LAW ("ATL") on June 9, 2025, and in the ABAJOURNAL on June 10, 2025.  The ATL article is entitled "Law Review Puts Out Full Issue Of Articles Written With AI, with a wonderful subtitle (that is, "Do androids dream of electric footnotes") that nods to one of Philip K. Dick's masterpieces.  The ABAJOURNAL article is entitled "AI takes on starring role in 4 articles published by law journal".

We hope Chiron, Cloudbirth, and Firenze would approve.

Quill To Query

 Thank you to Julianne Hill, who published "Does Artificial Intelligence Have a Role in Legal Scholarship?" in the ABAJOURNAL on May 2, 2025.  I was honored and delighted to be interviewed for the article.  The article also has a great photograph of my brilliant friend, Prof. Dan Linna of Northwestern Law School, along with his sage insights. 

The Right To Invent Tomorrow

 Aidan McCullen is an innovation leader.  Gifted entrepreneur, speaker, university lecturer, and former professional rugby player, he is the founder and host of The Innovation Show.  I was delighted to be Aidan's guest this past week.  We had a wonderful conversation together about roles the law plays, and could better play, in fostering innovation, especially in its open, user, collaborative, and free flavours.  Along the way, we discovered unexpected commonalities in ancestry and interests.  Here is my appearance on Aidan's The Innovation Show:

Thanks again, Aidan, for the golden opportunity to meet and speak with you about innovation and how to make it thrive.  I look forward to crossing paths with you again soon.

Maith thú, a dheartháir!

ChatGPT And Works Scholarly

 In 2023, my colleagues, Professors Bill Tomlinson and Rebecca Black, and I published an article in the SMU Law Review entitled "ChatGPT and Works Scholarly:  Best Practices and Legal Pitfalls in Writing with AI".  It discusses the power and pitfalls of co-authoring with AI.  Morgan Kromer, of The College Fix, covered our article, and a fun chat he had with me, on February 19, 2025.

Should California Stay Or Should It Go?

I had the good fortune of being interviewed by journalist Elizabeth Weise for her article, written with Josh Peter, today (January 24, 2025) in USA Today, entitled "A free California? Trump visits as initiative to leave U.S. cleared to gather signatures".  Her interest was sparked by an article Prof. Bill Tomlinson and I published in 2020, entitled "Fault Lines: An Empirical Legal Study of California Secession", available here.   Here's the article by Weise and Peter:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/01/24/country-of-california-secession-newsom-trump/77907859007/

	Trump greeted by Newsom in Los Angeles ahead of wildfires tour Trump and Newsom have been trading barbs over water. How far could this dispute go? www.usatoday.com

The conundrum California faces is nicely summarized by The Clash, in its song, "Should I stay or should I go?":

Whatever route California decides to take, it will not easy:  "If I go, there will be trouble.  And, if I stay, it will be double."

Third Time's A Trademark

 Matthew Kelly wrote a very nice article about how trademark law might affect use of the phrase "Three Peat" to describe a third consecutive Kansas City Super Bowl victory in February 2025.  To kick off the trademark issues implicated by "Three Peat", Matthew interviewed, and quoted, me in the article.  

Innovation Hypercycles - The Rise and Fall of Technology Hotspots

On the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic (January 26, 2020), I was invited to Queen's University, where I gave a TEDx talk on my theory of innovation hypercycles, entitled "The Birth and Death of Technology Hotspots".  With that pandemic in the rearview mirror, on September 9, 2024, I was honoured to deliver, as my inaugural lecture on being named the Paul E. Wilson Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Kansas, an updated and expanded version, called "Innovation Hypercycles - The Rise of Fall of Technology Hotspots".  Thank you very much to both universities for the opportunity to share my ideas.

The Misinformation Malady

 The brilliant Matt Ridley quoted me in his November 25, 2024, article in THE SPECTATOR, "The ‘experts’ who enabled RFK Jr’s rise".

After Casgevy Follows A Genome Editing Bevy

Today, December 8, 2023, the United States Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") emulated its British equivalent, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, by approving the CRISPR/Cas9-based therapy Casgevy, a gene editing treatment for sickle cell disease ("SCD").  As it did in the United Kingdom, this approval marks a milestone in therapeutic history in the United States.   Here is how the FDA described Casgevy:

Casgevy, a cell-based gene therapy, is approved for the treatment of sickle cell disease in patients 12 years of age and older with recurrent vaso-occlusive crises. Casgevy is the first FDA-approved therapy utilizing CRISPR/Cas9, a type of genome editing technology. Patients’ hematopoietic (blood) stem cells are modified by genome editing using CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

CRISPR/Cas9 can be directed to cut DNA in targeted areas, enabling the ability to accurately edit (remove, add, or replace) DNA where it was cut. The modified blood stem cells are transplanted back into the patient where they engraft (attach and multiply) within the bone marrow and increase the production of fetal hemoglobin (HbF), a type of hemoglobin that facilitates oxygen delivery. In patients with sickle cell disease, increased levels of HbF prevent the sickling of red blood cells.

The FDA was impressed by the strong performance of Casgevy in clinical trials:

The safety and effectiveness of Casgevy were evaluated in an ongoing single-arm, multi-center trial in adult and adolescent patients with SCD. Patients had a history of at least two protocol-defined severe VOCs during each of the two years prior to screening. The primary efficacy outcome was freedom from severe VOC episodes for at least 12 consecutive months during the 24-month follow-up period. A total of 44 patients were treated with Casgevy. Of the 31 patients with sufficient follow-up time to be evaluable, 29 (93.5%) achieved this outcome. All treated patients achieved successful engraftment with no patients experiencing graft failure or graft rejection. 

The most common side effects were low levels of platelets and white blood cells, mouth sores, nausea, musculoskeletal pain, abdominal pain, vomiting, febrile neutropenia (fever and low white blood cell count), headache and itching.

The FDA granted the license for Casgevy to biotechnology firm, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc..  However, many other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are waiting in the line for the FDA to grant approval to their genome editing therapies. 

Clonan the Barbarian and the Mastiff Landslide

 Argentina voted overwhelmingly on November 19, 2023, for Javier Milei to become its next president.  President Milei has a fascinating biography, which includes having played goalie for the Club Atlético Chacarita junior team, sung for the Rolling Stones cover band Everest, taught economics in universities for more than two decades, and hosted his own radio show.  Even more fascinating, however, are his dogs.  As of his election as president, he had five English Mastiffs.  Not only are four named for Milei's favourite three economists (that is, Milton Friedman, Murray Rothbard, and Robert Lucas), they are also reputed to be clones of his first English Mastiff, Conan.

It may or may not be true that all politicians are alike.  However, Milei's English Mastiffs are all extremely similar, which is unsurprising given their apparent provenance as clones.