Berkeley Law prohibits AI use in classes (by default)
Berkeley Law has implemented a default policy prohibiting the use of generative AI in coursework and exams to ensure students develop fundamental legal reasoning skills. Instructors retain the authority to opt-out of this policy if AI integration is a specific pedagogical goal of their course.
Why it matters
This reflects a growing trend in higher education to balance the necessity of AI literacy with the preservation of critical thinking and academic integrity.
Future lawyers may need to use artificial intelligence (“AI”) fluently. But the current state of the technology requires that AI use be coupled with the cognitive skills necessary to strategically deploy the technology, to critically assess its work product, and to uphold ethical obligations to clients and to the legal system. In short, thinking remains the sine qua non of good lawyering (and of a quality legal education). This policy seeks to ensure that our courses focus on requisite cognitive skills by default. It provides students with the opportunity to develop the skills they need to conceptualize, outline, draft, revise, and edit their work by forbidding the use of AI for these purposes in connection with work submitted for credit. It also forbids using AI to translate work for credit, thus providing students with the opportunity to develop and exercise their own fluency with legal English. And it prohibits AI use for any purpose in any exam situation. Activities violating the rule include (but are not limited to):
The article presents the policy and its rationale neutrally without taking a stance on the efficacy of the ban.
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