Information & Algorithmic Governance: syllabus

INFORMATION AND ALGORITHMIC GOVERNANCE: SPRING 2026 SYLLABUS

Information & Algorithmic Governance, Spring 2026

Professor Ira Steven Nathenson

Stetson University College of Law

Email:	inathenson@law.stetson.edu
Phone:	(727) 562-7681
Homepage:	https://www.nathenson.org
Course website:	https://nathenson.org/courses/algorithms
Assignments:	https://www.nathenson.org/courses/algorithms/assignments
Class time:	Mon. & Wed., 10:00 am – 11:50 am, online (zoom). The Zoom link will be sent via email to registered students several days prior to the first class. If you are a late enrollee to the course, please email me to obtain the link.
Office hours:	Normally any time after class, and by request or appointment. All office hours will be online (via Zoom or MS Teams).

ABOUT THIS COURSE

REQUIRED BOOKS

Required materials

1. Many of the course materials will be accessible through resources such as Westlaw, Hein Online, and JSTOR, all of which are associated with your law school account.
2. Other course materials will be available through the internet or through this website.
3. Finally, some materials will be available through online vendors such as the Amazon bookstore or other sellers. I will give advance notice regarding any such materials so that you have ample opportunity to obtain the materials via library (lend or loan), digital purchase, or bookstore acquisition.

Read this carefully: should you use print or electronic books?

Studies show that students tend to read with more depth and retention when working with paper books rather than eBooks. And in law school, a student needs to switch deftly between their casebook, their briefs, their notes, and their statute book. Doing so is difficult to do when all these materials are on one screen and a student is not able to switch quickly between materials. More fundamentally, people tend to read in a cursory fashion on a screen, skimming rather than engaging. For these reasons, I have traditionally required students to use the paper editions of their casebook and statute book in class.

Having said that, I’m also respectful of modern realities: that the lawyers of today need to be computer-literate, and that eBooks are becoming increasingly common in undergraduate curricula.

Accordingly, students this year can choose whether to purchase the paper edition of the casebook and statute book, or work solely with the digital editions. Information on obtaining these books is contained in the next section. But before you make your decision, consider the following:

• Best of both worlds. If you want the best of both worlds, buy the print edition, which is fairly inexpensive. You can still download and use the digital version, which comes as an unprotected and easily annotated PDF.
• Whether print or digital, annotate.
  • Engage and annotate. As noted, law students are expected to read in depth and to engage with their materials. A paper book is easy to highlight and annotate, a digital text less so. However, the casebook is an unprotected PDF, and there are many good PDF annotation programs. (For Windows, I am a big fan of Foxit Reader.) Thus, as I will often say in class, don’t just read the materials. Engage with them, digest them. Doing so also helpfully slows down your reading and forces you to engage in more depth.
  • Spoiler alert: whether you use a printed book or eBook, I will come up to students and ask to see what they’ve done with their books, briefs, and statutes. An unmarked book is likely unread, unloved, and not understood. Thus, regardless of whether you choose print or digital, I expect you to do your own briefs and to annotate your readings and at times will want to see it myself.
• Master your print or digital environment.
  • Be organized and intentional. If you use print, then be organized. Bring your casebook and any assigned statutes to every class. Make sure you set up your in-class workspace so that you can deftly switch between materials, as the books, briefs, and notes are all part of an integrated classroom learning experience. For example, when cases discuss rules and statutes, you’ll need them side-by-side to follow the discussion.
  • If you use digital-only, I expect you to do the very same thing and your obligation of digital competency mandates that you are able to switch competently between materials.
    • While in class, you’ll need to switch between materials often. And I will often ask students what page or paragraph contains the “rule” that governs a hypothetical. Students need to be able to “pinpoint cite,” by referring to the page, paragraph, and language. It is no excuse to say “Sorry, I don’t have that on my screen.” 
    • Thus, working from a device is no excuse for not being able to work with your notes, brief, casebook, and statutes. You’ll need to have all loaded and develop the skill to switch back and forth as needed and without thinking, just like you need to be able to pay attention to gas, steering, brakes, and mirrors when you drive a car.
    • Don’t forget: you are training to be a lawyer, and your obligations of preparation and performance as a student in my class remain the same, whether using print or digital. This means becoming adept, among other things, at annotating electronic materials, switching between documents or screens, and searching through documents at a fast pace. Remember, your printed casebook classmates will be able to flip to page “X” in seconds, and those using a digital casebook need to be able to do the same thing on screen. A judge won’t wait for you to find materials in a digital document, and neither will your classmates and I.
    • Spoiler alert: Use two screens, a laptop and a tablet to increase your screen real estate. Also consider using a device with a stylus to take notes by hand, which will slow you down and make you more of an engaged participant and less of a stenographer.
• Do not be penny-wise. If you choose digital, do so because you know you will be able to work effectively in that environment, and that you are willing to engage and interact with the materials in a way that maximizes the effectiveness of your education. Do not make the choice based on saving a few dollars. First, a legal education is an expensive and significant life-event undertaking, so your choices should be based on what is the best tool for your learning. Second, you can get both print and digital super-inexpensively, so you can always experiment and develop your skills in case you are not sure if you can yet master the intensity of engagement required for studying complex legal materials.

GRADING

This is not a seminar class. This is also not entirely a traditional doctrinal class; it is somewhere between a research and experiential course. Each week, you will be expected to be well prepared to discuss the ideas in the readings in light of the topic for the week. Each week, we will also work together in moving along our soon-to-be-selected project(s) for the semester. Projects are yours to envision subject to professor approval and guidance.

Grading in the course is as follows:

PARTICIPATION: 1/3

Scoring includes:

• Class preparation and discussion
• Timeliness and quality of proposals for projects
• Suggestions for topics and readings
• Participation in discussion boards
• Individual meetings with Professor on projects

PROJECTS: 2/3

• One to two projects depending on scale. They need not be connected, but efficiency would probably be maximized by limiting yourself to one overall issue regardless of whether it is broken up into subtopics.
• The projects may (and likely should, as attorney competence with AI is one of the goals of this course) be created with the assistance of AI, along with journaling.
• Scoring will include project work, progress, and class presentation.
• The projects may be, inter alia:
  • A functional tool (such as the creation of a GPT), with associated documents and files and access links assembled into a SharePoint folder, including PDOs (perpetual digital objects), if any, and other associated working documents, files, journals, versions, and AI transcripts. A project/folder/PDO should include any and all materials relevant to that project, or in the alternative, with meaningful access to such materials (not just citation).
  • Legal analysis and digital forensics, such as an examination of prior and revised TikTok TOC/privacy policies, along with examples illustrating problems associated with the policies.
  • The creation of a useful iOS or Android app, along with associated files and analysis/commentary.
  • An exploration of the capabilities of a state-of-the-art generative AI LLM as a research tool, with plan of tasks, documentation of results, journaling of efforts, and legal analysis.
  • Any combination or variation on the above. The goal is to create original and useful PDOs that you might use as part of an employment portfolio to demonstrate your burgeoning competency in emerging technologies, their legal implications, and their utility to lawyers or clients. We will work together in class to help one another in our creation and work.

LEARNING OUTCOMES, METHODOLOGIES, AND ASSESSMENT

DAY-TO-DAY PREPARATION AND RECITATION

Be prepared.

• Do the work. Being prepared includes carefully reading the assigned materials more than once, marking up cases and rules or statutes, briefing assigned cases, and looking up unfamiliar words in a dictionary (legal or otherwise). For unfamiliar legal terms, an online legal dictionary is available at http://dictionary.law.com. Black’s Law Dictionary is also highly recommended. Don’t expect to come to class unprepared and to learn the materials by listening, that’s not how law school works. The only way class time will benefit you is by diligently preparing the materials before class and doing follow-up work after.
• Read and mark up the rules and statutes. Reading and briefing the cases in the Casebook is not enough. If you have not carefully read and marked up the assigned rules, statutes, or constitutional provisions, you are not prepared.
• Canned briefs are a big no-no. Don’t bother trying to get through class with canned briefs. Using them is essentially plagiarism because you are required to do your own briefing, and using a canned brief is passing off somebody else’s preparation as your own. Additionally, many canned briefs contain errors, don’t focus on the issues pertinent to our class. Finally, canned briefs never substitute for the educational value of doing the work yourself.
• How much time is enough? If you do not know if you are preparing enough, a good rule of thumb is that you should spend at least twice as much time preparing before class as you spend in class. In other words, for a two-hour class, you should prepare a minimum of four hours. Sometimes it may be less, but equally so, difficult or longer assignments may take longer.
• Reading ahead? Some students like to read ahead but proceed with caution as you can get too far ahead and forget the materials by the time they are discussed in class. So, if you do read ahead, you must re-review the assigned materials immediately prior to relevant class. It is unprofessional to say “I read this a week ago but I forgot what it said.”
• Day-to-day overlap. If we do not finish the materials assigned for a particular day, you must re-review those materials again for the next class. Along similar lines, you remain responsible for any new materials still posted for the next class unless and I post a revision to the assignments on the website. We are not “behind” until I tell you so expressly.
• One-shot pass. One time per semester, you may tell me before class begins and I will not cold-call on you. However, if you do not tell me in advance, and I call on you and determine in my sole discretion that you are unprepared, you may be marked as absent.

Be engaged, respectful, and realistic.

• The Elephant Policy. An elephant never forgets, and neither will your classmates if you do not treat them or me with respect and empathy. (The same goes for me.) It is obvious to state that we live in socially and politically precarious times, but I intend on making my classroom an engaging and safe place for interesting, challenging discourse. So be willing to disagree with me or your classmates but do so with respect and kindness, relying on reasoned facts and law. Also keep in mind that as a lawyer, you sometimes need to advocate for positions that you might vehemently disagree with, so you should never assume that any class member (or professor) necessarily personally subscribes to a position posited in class. That is part of being a lawyer, and at times you will may even be asked to argue a position and then argue the opposite position. Regardless, if you ever have concerns that you do not feel comfortable expressing before the group, I hope that you will feel comfortable sharing them with me, or Dean Edwards, or, if warranted, via the EthicsPoint website.

Finally, be professional.

• Professionalism starts in law school. I expect the highest degree of professionalism from you toward your classmates and me. Remember, the reputation you earn while in school will follow you through a lifetime of practice. I therefore expect you to treat your College of Law colleagues, professors, and staff with respect, even (and especially) when you disagree with them. As the Florida Bar makes clear: “[t]he essential ingredients of professionalism are character, competence, commitment, and civility.” (Emphasis added.)

CLASSROOM POLICIES

Class discussion and participation.

I tend to take volunteers and cold-call. Some days I will move around from student to student, and others I will focus on fewer persons. Please do not be intimidated if I stick with you a while; as a neurodivergent educator, I strongly believe that hard-working and well-prepared students can understand often difficult material, even if the material is confusing at first. If I stick with you, please know that it is not a punishment but rather a vote of confidence that I believe you have done the work and that we can find that wonderful “aha” moment together. Regarding participation in general, I strive to foster an engaging, inclusive environment where everyone feels open to participate. I do not, however, boost (or reduce) grades based on participation (or a lack thereof). I view being engaged as both the calling card of an excellent legal professional as well as a privilege of being in law school. Thus, in my classes, participation is expected but it is not scored or graded. I do recognize that the day may come (!) when you just are unable to be properly prepared. You may take one (1) pass per semester, but you must assert the pass prior to the beginning of class.

Respect & dignity in classroom discussion.

This course strives to be at the forefront of contemporary and oftentimes contentious issues of governance, law, and systemic collapse; it also asks how structural or technological changes might make things better, or worse. It would be foolhardy, therefore, to pretend that we can address such issues meaningfully without discussing them in a straightforward but respectful way. Every person, myself included, is expected to maintain the highest academic and professional ethics in the conduct of the class, regardless of any person’s individual beliefs. The most important skills we can exercise as humans, academics, and even attorneys, will be empathy and listening.

Placards & online cameras. 

If class is in person, please bring your placards to every class. If class is online, please ensure that your name is shown on screen. Students are strongly encouraged to keep cameras on; if you have a reason why you need to keep your camera off please let me know.

Accommodations.

In the higher education environment, students with disabilities have the option to self-identify and request ADA accommodations. While, in general, self-identifying and registering are not mandatory, students with disabilities must register with the ADA Coordinator before reasonable accommodations can and will be granted. ADA accommodations are not retroactive and will take effect on the date they are granted by the ADA Coordinator. ADA accommodations granted will be valid for the duration of a student’s need for accommodations at the College of Law, unless a student is notified that the accommodations granted are of limited duration or do not apply to a particular course. Students are encouraged to register early to have accommodations in place before they are needed. The ADA Coordinator will begin accepting and processing requests for accommodations at the conclusion of the previous semester’s or summer sessions’ final examination period. Please see the Academic Calendar for specific dates. Further information on accommodations and procedures can be found at Registering For and Requesting Accommodations – Stetson Law.

Attendance: be there.

Sign-in. Attendance will be tracked via Qwickly each class. Signing in from outside the classroom or absent from a Zoom session, signing in for another student, or giving a sign-in code to another class member is a violation of the Honor Code, with potentially significant consequences.

Attendance. Attendance means being in the classroom, on time, and not leaving the classroom without authorization. Moreover, class attendance is mandatory and in accordance with Stetson Law’s attendance policy, you may not obtain credit for any course for which you miss more than 20% of the classes. However, I strongly recommend that you do not miss even that many classes. In addition to the assigned materials, anything I say or that we discuss in class is fair game for quizzes and exams. Regarding punctuality, the reality of legal practice is that early is on time, and on time is late. You should be on campus at least ten minutes before class. That way, you will be in your seat and ready to go the moment class starts. Problems happen to everyone, so plan accordingly to avoid or minimize them. A professional arrives early and never makes excuses. Note additionally that late students are more likely to receive a cold call and that more than one late may result in you being marked absent, though you may stay in the classroom.

Leaving the room.

Leaving the room during class. Barring a genuine need, hold off on classroom exits until class ends or unless we take a break. Leaving the room during class without an extremely good reason is extremely unprofessional. Do it enough and your presence may be stricken from the attendance sheet for that day. See FRCP 12(f).

Email.

From time to time, course-related announcements (such as new online materials or assignment revisions) will be sent to your Stetson Law email account. My transmission to you of a class-related email shall constitute notice and you are responsible for the information contained in any such transmission, whether you read it or not. Cf. FRCP 4(e), FRCP 5(b)(2)(E). Check your email regularly.

Technology.

Phones. Cellphones may only be used when I indicate (I use them sometimes to poll the class). Your phone must otherwise be silenced and put away.

Class recordings. You may use your cell phone, tablet, or other device to take static images (including screencaps) of anything I display on the screen. You may not, however, record audio or video; nor may you distribute or reproduce any class recordings or screen shots to or for anyone besides a current class member. Class will normally be recorded in case the recording is needed for any accommodations. Contact Student Support or the ADA coordinator to obtain access if appropriate.

Technology policy. As you know from the sections above reading digital casebooks, I encourage law students to develop professional digital competency. So does the Florida Bar. Laptops and tablets are therefore permitted. In fact, you might find multiple devices to be useful, such as having one device open for note-taking and another for viewing the casebook or other materials, particularly for students using the digital casebook and interested in developing their professional digital skills. I am also a big believer in the power of a good stylus such as with an iPad or a Surface Pro.

Proper use of technology. As the superhero trope goes, with great power . . . well, you know. Use the privilege of classroom technology responsibly and smartly. So don’t abuse my willingness to encourage technology as the privilege is revocable. Please no goofing around on your computer. I do walk around the classroom and might kick you out (and will likely comment) if I find you surfing Amazon or playing Fortnite or the like. Regarding working smartly, don’t be a stenographer (the person who types up every word a witness says at a deposition or trial). Writing down every word is a horrible way to learn as the words will flow from my mouth to your fingers without taking a pit stop at your brain. So another part of being a law student/lawyer is learning how to take intelligent notes. Don’t fall into the trap of writing down every word, as not every word I say is that interesting or important. For that reason, another approach you might take is to take notes by hand and type them up after class as part of your post-class work.

AI policy; in general. AI is an incredible tool, and one that you have good pragmatic, professional, and ethical reasons to learn to use responsibly. Thus, while AI can and must become part of your workflow, it is never a substitute for actually doing the work, including reading and briefing cases, and reading, marking up, and dissecting rules and statues.  Don’t use AI to make briefs, solve problem sets, or answer study questions; if you do, I and others will very likely notice, and at the very least, you will be depriving yourself and your future clients of the education you need to practice effectively. Having said that, my primary scholarly interest is law and technology, and accordingly, I will try from day one to model productive, ethical use of AI in the classroom. Indeed, when it comes to AI, we are all students learning together.

AI addendum: specific to this course: We will discuss and use AI extensively in this course. As such, not only are you permitted to use AI in this course, you are basically expected to, so long as you do so transparently and ethically. Further guidelines on ethical and effective use of AI will be addressed in connection with the context of specific assignments. An important aspect of this will include what I call “proof of work” (itself a term derived from crypto), which in a nutshell means: use AI, but disclose the nature of substance of such use. Additionally, always keep in the back of your mind that although AI can often be appropriate for brainstorming, organizing, researching (with caution and verification!), drafting, and revising, that in the end your work should be your own and you are responsible for it. What this means of course, in a course about how emerging technologies such as AI affect legal work, and in turn, may affect what we ought to consider appropriate in an academic and in a legal realm, this itself will become an important topic for discussion and analysis. Thus, as a start, provide:

• Attribution, such as identifying portions of a work created by AI.
• Proof of work, such as retaining versions and redlines, with indications of AI contributions.
• Transparency, such as attributions as to sources and authorship.

All of these are ongoing parts of any project file. Are all vital in a course like this. Any additions or clarifications added through the semester will be noted below, along with a posting date, most of which will have been previously addressed in class prior to posting. Put differently, each of us are principals in this course, and each of us are expected to assert agency and ownership. The quality of this course may start with the professor, but hinges on us all.