Ipse Dixit

In this episode, Jade Craig, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, discusses his article, "Rate Covenants in Municipal Bonds: Selling Away Civil Rights and Fair Housing Goals." Professor Craig discusses revenue bonds that state and local governments issue to fund projects ranging from improvements to public utilities and toll roads to convention centers and retirement communities. Local governments repay revenue bond investors with money generated by fees associated with the funded project which are charged to members of the public who use the service. In charging these fees, governments are often bound by rate covenant provisions that require the government to charge fees sufficient to cover the debt—with little in the way of restrictions on how high those rates may go. Absent restrictions, and in the interest of repaying investors (and generating a profit for these investors), state and local governments often charge high fees for users, resulting in regressive rates that disproportionately harm low-income people and people of color. Professor Craig urges greater attention to the harms rate covenants pose to these communities and provides suggestions for how governments may better accommodate their constituents' civil rights while continuing to fund infrastructure and other projects through revenue bonds.Professor Craig's article was published in Volume 102 of the Denver Law Review and is available here. Professor Craig is on Twitter at @ProfJadeCraig. This episode was guest-hosted by Michael Smith, who will be joining the University of Oklahoma as an associate professor of law beginning in August 2025. Professor Smith is on Bluesky at @msmith750.bsky.social. 

In this episode, Franklin Graves, Senior Counsel at LinkedIn, discusses his article "Upload Complete: An Introduction to Creator Economy Law," which will be published in the Belmont Law Journal. Graves begins by explaining what he means by a creator and the creator economy. He reflects on what made the creator economy possible and the kinds of opportunities it provides to creators, platforms, and advertisers alike. He discusses how different bodies of law affect the creator economy, including privacy law, competition law, and copyright. And he offers his predictions for the future of the creator economy. Graves is on Twitter, Bluesky, and of course, LinkedIn.This episode was hosted by Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Frye is on Twitter at @brianlfrye and on Bluesky at @brianlfrye.bsky.social.

In this episode, Michael L. Smith, soon to be an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, discusses his article "Generative AI and the Purpose of Legal Scholarship," which will be published in the University of Massachusetts Law Review. Smith begins by describing recent law review articles claiming that the use of generative AI will transform legal scholarship. He asks whether that is true or desirable, observing that the use of generative AI may not be conducive to the production of high-quality legal scholarship. He reflects on the incentives of legal scholars and how the use of generative AI interacts with those incentives. And he offers some suggestions about how the legal academy should think about the use of generative AI to produce legal scholarship. Smith is on Bluesky.This episode was hosted by Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Frye is on Twitter at @brianlfrye and on Bluesky at @brianlfrye.bsky.social.

In this episode, Ian J. Murray, a Forrester Fellow at Tulane Law School, discusses his article "The Offshore Origins of Regulatory Arbitrage: Charting a Critical Conceptual History," which will be published in the William and Mary Business Law Review. Murray begins by describing the concept of conceptual history and explaining the origin of the concepts of arbitrage and regulatory arbitrage. He reflects on how and why naming regulatory arbitrage affected the regulatory enterprise. And he discuss how it should affect the way we think about the rhetoric of regulation. This episode was hosted by Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Frye is on Twitter at @brianlfrye and on Bluesky at @brianlfrye.bsky.social.

In this episode, Kevin Frazier, an AI Innovation and Law Fellow at UT Austin School of Law and Contributing Editor at Lawfare, and Alan Rozenshtein, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School, discuss their draft article "Large Language Scholarship: Generative AI in the Legal Academy." They begin by explaining what an AI model is, what kind of AI models they are talking about in their article, and how AI models are affecting legal scholarship. They explain how the legal academy has responded to the use of AI models, and reflect on how using AI models could enable legal scholars to produce better legal scholarship more efficiently. They also offer some pointers on effective AI use in legal scholarship. Frazier is on Twitter and Bluesky. Rozenshtein is also on Twitter and Bluesky.This episode was hosted by Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Frye is on Twitter at @brianlfrye and on Bluesky at @brianlfrye.bsky.social.

In this episode, Nicholas Bruckman, a documentary filmmaker, discusses his new film "Minted," which documents the "non-fungible token" or NFT phenomenon of the early 2020s. Bruckman begins by describing his background as a documentary filmmakers, as well as how he became interested in cryptocurrencies and NFTs. He explains how he first started working on Minted and how the film developed over time. He reflects on how he constructed the story of the film and explained NFTs to a novice audience. And he speculates on the future of NFTs and digital art. Bruckman is on Twitter and Instagram.This episode was hosted by Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Frye is on Twitter at @brianlfrye and on Bluesky at @brianlfrye.bsky.social.

In this episode, Michael Assis, a PhD candidate at the Bard Graduate Center, discusses his scholarship on art, digital art, and NFTs, including his dissertation in progress, Decentralized Objects: Non-fungible Tokens in the Age of Web3. Among other things, Assis explains what NFTs are and how they relate to the history and theory of art and digital art. He discusses how the concept of authenticity has evolved over time and what NFTs can tell us about the future of authenticity. Assis is on Twitter and Bluesky.This episode was hosted by Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Frye is on Twitter at @brianlfrye and on Bluesky at @brianlfrye.bsky.social.

At the 1977 American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting, Barbara Ringer, the eighth Register of Copyrights, gave a presentation titled "Implementing the Copyright Law: What Librarians Should Know," in which she explained how the Copyright Act of 1976, of which she was the principle drafter, would affect libraries and librarians. This is a recording of her presentation.Many thanks to Zvi S. Rosen for finding, digitizing, and providing this recording.

In this episode, Zvi Rosen, Assistant Professor of Law at the Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School and incoming Associate Professor of Law at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, discusses his draft article "AI Authorship: A Case of History Repeating Itself?" Rosen explains how copyright law and the Copyright Office have wrestled with concept of copyright in computer-generated works, beginning with the first computer-generated works submitted for copyright registration in the 1950s. He argues that the Copyright Office of the 1950s and 1960s provided answers to those vexing questions that are still relevant today in relation to AI-generated works. Rosen is on Twitter and Bluesky. This episode was hosted by Brian L. Frye, Spears-Gilbert Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. Frye is on Twitter at @brianlfrye and on Bluesky at @brianlfrye.bsky.social.