A quick reply (or perhaps just a rejoinder?) to @robertdiab.bsky.social's recent slaw post on AI and the value of "struggle" in legal education. Many thanks to Robert. michaelplaxton.substack.com/p/does-strug...

Does “Struggle” Mean No AI at All?

Short answer: No.

michaelplaxton.substack.com

New Substack post. Okay, I've finally decided to play with the AI a bit, as I work on course materials. The possibilities are pretty neat. michaelplaxton.substack.com/p/teaching-a...

Teaching AI and Teaching with AI

I am going to have all the fact patterns.

michaelplaxton.substack.com

A follow-up to my announcement that we will be going device-free in my Evidence Law class this term. I've been asked on several platforms about accommodations. Some thoughts here. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

Laptops and Accommodations

Last week, I announced that my course on Evidence Law will be ‘device-free’, in the sense that students will be barred from using electronic devices - such as laptops, smartphones, smart-glasses, etc.

open.substack.com

A follow-up to my announcement that we will be going device-free in my Evidence Law class this term. I've been asked on several platforms about accommodations. Some thoughts here. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

Laptops and Accommodations

Last week, I announced that my course on Evidence Law will be ‘device-free’, in the sense that students will be barred from using electronic devices - such as laptops, smartphones, smart-glasses, etc.

open.substack.com

An open letter to my Evidence Law students, explaining why we're going device-free this term. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

An Open Letter to My Students

Why we're going device-free this term.

open.substack.com

As a philosopher I hate to say it but I agree. Because narrowly in philosophy we do, genuinely, use "social construct" to neutrally classify a class of things in social ontology. But we're clearly outliers in this in the humanities, and the vulgar usage better gets the typical spirit of the thing.

ae@aelkus.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"social construct" = "thing I don't like" is a case where the vulgar usage of something isn't actually that different from its academic deployment

Yep

Timothy Caulfield@caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Sure, AI writing has some recognizable tics (but I ain't giving up my em–dashes!). But think this piece is overly optimistic about our ability to spot AI writing. Most studies suggest we can't. And AI only gonna get better – ugh. How to spot AI writing www.economist.com/culture/2026...

An open letter to my Evidence Law students, explaining why we're going device-free this term. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

An Open Letter to My Students

Why we're going device-free this term.

open.substack.com

I lived in Aberdeen for four years. Can confirm. Fight in the streets, perhaps. Dance? No.

Heinz Brandenburg@heinzbrandenburg.bsky.social · 2mo ago

If you know anything about Aberdonians, they don't do dancing in the streets.

New Substack post, riffing off a recent blog post by @robertdiab.bsky.social. On what it means to "teach AI" to law students. Comments welcome. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

What does it mean to 'teach AI' to law students?

Law schools better start figuring it out.

open.substack.com

New Substack post, riffing off a recent blog post by @robertdiab.bsky.social. On what it means to "teach AI" to law students. Comments welcome. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

What does it mean to 'teach AI' to law students?

Law schools better start figuring it out.

open.substack.com

My latest on Substack: Thoughts on the University of Chicago Law School's Statement on AI. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

The Grind is the Point

AI, Legal Education & the University of Chicago Law School's Report

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“There are also good reasons to oppose generative AI as we already know it.” www.compactmag.com/article/the-...

The AI Apocalypse Is Already Here

Americans do not care for artificial intelligence. Recent polling shows that their attitudes mostly range from ambivalence to horror.

compactmag.com

Ahead of England v Norway in the World Cup, enjoy this classic from my old pal Patrick Kidd in The Times

My latest on Substack: Thoughts on the University of Chicago Law School's Statement on AI. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

The Grind is the Point

AI, Legal Education & the University of Chicago Law School's Report

open.substack.com

That AI isn't yet "good enough" to mark students' essays ought to be beside the point. Outsourcing such tasks to AI is fundamentally incompatible with the intellectual engagement between student and professor that should be central to higher education. /1 www.cam.ac.uk/stories/ai-u...

AI not yet good enough to mark university essays, rewarding ‘style over substance’

Top AI systems show bias towards rewarding overly complex prose styles and only match human examiners for grade bands around half the time, research finds.

cam.ac.uk

If you're at all concerned about the post-AI future of law schools and legal education, this Michael Plaxton essay is a must-read. His central point is that legal ed was in serious trouble even before AI, but it faces existential challenges now. michaelplaxton.substack.com/p/to-our-nex...

To Our Next Law Dean

How will you justify our existence?

michaelplaxton.substack.com

Sunrise in Patagonia, Chile Torres del Paine, Chile 🇨🇱

Plaxton: "[T]hese cases, and the constitutional interpretive methodology for which they stand, are fundamentally based on bedrock ideas of political morality and philosophy...".

Lawrence Solum@lsolum.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Plaxton on the Contestability of Interpretative Methodology in Canada I recommend the excellent discussion at Michael Plaxon's Substack: Interpretive Methodology: Is Anything Ever Really Settled?. Here is a taste: Yet I believe we have reached a kind of tipping point in Canadian constitutional…

On Thursday and Friday, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Degale and Bilinski - both concerning the fault requirement for the offence of sexual assault. Here is my quick Substack primer, setting out the basic interpretive considerations. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

The Fault Requirement for Sexual Assault

The basic arguments in a nutshell

open.substack.com

"Law firms" 10-15 years from now will so little resemble firms today that we'll need a different name for them (many of today's law firms won't make it through). The same is even more true for law schools: The future legal landscape simply will have no place for these entities as we've known them.

New post: Does the Prime Minister have to be an MP? publiclawforeveryone.com/2026/05/14/d...

Does the Prime Minister have to be an MP?

Uncertainty about the position of the Prime Minister has raised the question whether Andy Burnham, currently the Mayor of Greater Manchester, might return to the House of Commons in order to challe…

publiclawforeveryone.com

From the Substack "archives", as it were: On what it would mean to take seriously the law societies' requirement that law students "demonstrate" competency. With thoughts on teaching and examining students on statutory interpretation. Comments welcome. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

"Demonstrating" Competency

On the National Requirement and Canadian legal education

open.substack.com

My reply to @emmettmacfarlane.com's thoughtful post on methodological inconsistency in the Supreme Court. Thoughts and comments welcome. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

Consistency and Flux in Constitutional Interpretation

A reply to Emmett Macfarlane

open.substack.com

Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦@emmettmacfarlane.com · 4mo ago

NEW POST. Inspired to vomit this out by recent posts from @michaelplaxton.bsky.social and @doubleaspect.blog. A (admittedly rushed) contribution from a different disciplinary perspective on 'consistency' and interpretative method. emmettmacfarlane.substack.com/p/on-debates...

My reply to @emmettmacfarlane.com's thoughtful post on methodological inconsistency in the Supreme Court. Thoughts and comments welcome. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

Consistency and Flux in Constitutional Interpretation

A reply to Emmett Macfarlane

open.substack.com

Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦@emmettmacfarlane.com · 4mo ago

NEW POST. Inspired to vomit this out by recent posts from @michaelplaxton.bsky.social and @doubleaspect.blog. A (admittedly rushed) contribution from a different disciplinary perspective on 'consistency' and interpretative method. emmettmacfarlane.substack.com/p/on-debates...

This is great. I appreciate the kind words, and may address one or two points in a future post.

Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦@emmettmacfarlane.com · 4mo ago

NEW POST. Inspired to vomit this out by recent posts from @michaelplaxton.bsky.social and @doubleaspect.blog. A (admittedly rushed) contribution from a different disciplinary perspective on 'consistency' and interpretative method. emmettmacfarlane.substack.com/p/on-debates...

My latest Substack: on Taylor, Alford, and what to do about criticisms of the Supreme Court of Canada's lack of consistency on constitutional methodology. Comments and suggestions welcome. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

Constitutional Whiplash

Alford v Canada and a recent exchange

open.substack.com

This is great. I appreciate the kind words, and may address one or two points in a future post.

Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦@emmettmacfarlane.com · 4mo ago

NEW POST. Inspired to vomit this out by recent posts from @michaelplaxton.bsky.social and @doubleaspect.blog. A (admittedly rushed) contribution from a different disciplinary perspective on 'consistency' and interpretative method. emmettmacfarlane.substack.com/p/on-debates...

My latest Substack: on Taylor, Alford, and what to do about criticisms of the Supreme Court of Canada's lack of consistency on constitutional methodology. Comments and suggestions welcome. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

Constitutional Whiplash

Alford v Canada and a recent exchange

open.substack.com

My latest on Substack: On rational arbitrariness in the construction of both regulatory offences and true crimes. Thoughts and suggestions, as always, welcome. open.substack.com/pub/michaelp...

Rational Arbitrariness in True Crimes

In Monday’s post on Robertson, I ended by expressing the concern that all the Court of Appeal’s talk about bright-line rules and regulated fields seems to obscure or distort something important about ...

open.substack.com