Michael Plaxton
6.5K posts

Michael Plaxton
@MichaelPlaxton
Law prof. Books: Implied Consent & Sexual Assault; Sovereignty, Restraint & Guidance; Tenth Justice.

Major fire a Floyd County Courthouse in Rome, Georgia






Delighted to host our second annual Legal Philosophy & Constitutional Theory Junior Scholars Conference at Georgetown's Center for the Constitution. Papers were competitively selected through blind peer review. Today's lineup: "Legal Meaning is Lawful Meaning" (Elias Neibart), "Shortcutting Constitutional Adjudication" (Andre Borges Uliano), "What Interpretation Just Is and Why It Matters" (Charles Capps), "The Live Hand of the Past" (Clemente Recabarren), and "Law, Fact, Form and Function" (Haley Proctor). Tomorrow's lineup: "The People in Their Intertemporal Dimension" (Ylenia Guerra), "Against Epistemic Deference and Epistemic Reasonableness" (Santiago Carbajal), and "Government by Jury" (Nathaniel Donahue). Deeply grateful to our senior scholars — Kevin Tobia, Brian Bix, Aileen Kavanagh, Joseph Blocher, Nicholas Barber, Conor Casey, and Renée Lettow Lerner — for their generous and expert commentary. Excited to see where these conversations go. @EliasNeibart @uliano_andre @charlesfcapps @AileenFKavanagh @TCDLawSchool @Caseyco231 @LawAtSurrey @BrianBixLawPhil



@OrinKerr I’m student editor on two law reviews. The AI issue has gotten bad. I suspect it’s a consequence of valuing length over substance. A law review article of 20 pages is far preferable to the same article of 20 pages plus 20 of AI filler. My two-cents.


@danepps @WashULRev Somebody should see how the average number of em dashes per article has changed over time.

There are also second-order effects caused by the liar's dividend. If you look at my papers from 2018-2024, I used em dashes constantly. But after the rise of AI, I intentionally avoid them given their association with LLMs. So AI has also changed syntax due to genuine recoil.

An attorney writes to me about the mostly AI-written law review article he had accepted this spring, now forthcoming in the flagship law review of a Top 50 law school. A draft of the article is now up on SSRN. According to the attorney: " Last month I used Claude to assist in drafting a new article . . . . I drafted this article in about 15 hours. In 2022 I published an article of similar length that took around 150 hours." The attorney adds: "I used Claude the way I’d use a junior associate—as a first drafter, sounding board, and research assistant. Most of the article, including the entirety of the title, abstract, and intro, is mine from the keyboard up. And anything Claude contributed that made it to the final version is there because I reviewed it, agreed with it, and chose to sign my name to it. This is no different than how I’d review an associate’s draft and then take responsibility for the finished product." The attorney adds: "That first draft was by no means file ready, but it was better than what I would’ve received from the vast majority of BigLaw associates. I was blown away, and have since started my own appellate and litigation practice in an effort to replicate these productivity gains for client work." Your thoughts? I know the attorney's name, and the journal, and I have checked out the article, but I figured that, at least for now, I would hold that back.

An attorney writes to me about the mostly AI-written law review article he had accepted this spring, now forthcoming in the flagship law review of a Top 50 law school. A draft of the article is now up on SSRN. According to the attorney: " Last month I used Claude to assist in drafting a new article . . . . I drafted this article in about 15 hours. In 2022 I published an article of similar length that took around 150 hours." The attorney adds: "I used Claude the way I’d use a junior associate—as a first drafter, sounding board, and research assistant. Most of the article, including the entirety of the title, abstract, and intro, is mine from the keyboard up. And anything Claude contributed that made it to the final version is there because I reviewed it, agreed with it, and chose to sign my name to it. This is no different than how I’d review an associate’s draft and then take responsibility for the finished product." The attorney adds: "That first draft was by no means file ready, but it was better than what I would’ve received from the vast majority of BigLaw associates. I was blown away, and have since started my own appellate and litigation practice in an effort to replicate these productivity gains for client work." Your thoughts? I know the attorney's name, and the journal, and I have checked out the article, but I figured that, at least for now, I would hold that back.

This is sad. I know as a politician these companies are going to spend a billion dollars against me for saying it but 🤷🏽♀️ Pervasive gambling is not good for society. It turns life into a casino, traps people in addiction & debt, surges domestic violence, and fosters manipulation.

An attorney writes to me about the mostly AI-written law review article he had accepted this spring, now forthcoming in the flagship law review of a Top 50 law school. A draft of the article is now up on SSRN. According to the attorney: " Last month I used Claude to assist in drafting a new article . . . . I drafted this article in about 15 hours. In 2022 I published an article of similar length that took around 150 hours." The attorney adds: "I used Claude the way I’d use a junior associate—as a first drafter, sounding board, and research assistant. Most of the article, including the entirety of the title, abstract, and intro, is mine from the keyboard up. And anything Claude contributed that made it to the final version is there because I reviewed it, agreed with it, and chose to sign my name to it. This is no different than how I’d review an associate’s draft and then take responsibility for the finished product." The attorney adds: "That first draft was by no means file ready, but it was better than what I would’ve received from the vast majority of BigLaw associates. I was blown away, and have since started my own appellate and litigation practice in an effort to replicate these productivity gains for client work." Your thoughts? I know the attorney's name, and the journal, and I have checked out the article, but I figured that, at least for now, I would hold that back.


