Artificial Intelligence and the Law of the Horse

When Justice Frank H. Easterbrook was asked, in 1996, to deliver a lecture on "Property in Cyberspace", he titled his talk--"Cyberspace and the Law of the Horse". His curious choice of title was his way of calling out the foolishness of trying to formulate laws to address new technologies when general principles could, just as well, suffice. There were a number of cases, he said, that dealt with the sale of horses, and even more where the courts have been approached to address the injuries suffered by people who have been kicked by horses. But this doesn't mean that one needs to "collect these strands into a course on "the Law of the Horse". All we need to do is study how the general law of property, torts and commercial transactions applies to the horse trade.