Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Master products liability doctrine: Understand and apply the foundational theories (negligence, strict liability, warranty, misrepresentation) to fact patterns involving both traditional and digital products.
- Analyze the boundaries of doctrine: Identify where traditional PL doctrine works effectively and where it breaks down when applied to algorithms, platforms, and AI systems.
- Apply frameworks to emerging contexts: Use the FAIR Framework (Flexibility, Adaptability, Imagination, Resilience) to propose legal responses to novel technologies and business models.
- Develop judgment under uncertainty: Make reasoned recommendations about liability risk, compliance, and strategic response when legal answers are contested.
- Communicate complex analysis: Explain legal doctrine and policy tradeoffs to mixed audiences in writing, presentation, and multimedia formats.
- Integrate ethics and responsibility: Recognize that legal questions are ethical questions, and that the kind of manager you intend to be is inseparable from the decisions you make about product safety and accountability.
Engagement & Participation
Success in this course requires active participation in class discussions, case analysis, and team-based project work. All students are expected to come to class prepared, having read and briefed assigned cases, and ready to engage thoughtfully in Socratic discussion, case debates, and policy analysis. Please review the Engagement Rubric in Course Policies. Remember that conversation is interactive, spontaneous communication. We will practice this through in-class discussions, case analysis, policy simulations, and structured debates.
Your Engagement Grade Reflects
- Preparation: Case evaluations completed; readings reviewed; ready to discuss
- Participation: Contributing meaningfully to discussions; asking clarifying questions; engaging respectfully with competing viewpoints
- Intellectual honesty: Acknowledging complexity; admitting uncertainty; revising your thinking when evidence warrants
- Collaboration: Supporting team members on the PL Project; contributing to group discussions and peer feedback
Individual Assignments (Ongoing)
Throughout the semester, you will complete individual assignments that reinforce doctrine, deepen analysis, and prepare you for the PL Project. These include:
Case Evaluations
You will read and review assigned cases to be prepared to discuss and evaluate during our class meetings. Be prepared to discuss:
- Case name, court, and year
- Facts: What happened? Why did the parties dispute?
- Legal issue: What is the question of law?
- Holding: How did the court rule?
- Reasoning: Why? What doctrine does the court apply?
- Managerial implications: How does this ruling affect business decisions about product design, warnings, recalls, or liability exposure?
Reflection Papers
At key points (Weeks 4, 6, 10), you will complete brief reflection papers (≅850 words) that deepen your understanding of doctrine and its implications. You will be asked to:
- Apply a doctrine to a new scenario
- Evaluate competing policy rationales
- Assess how the law allocates risk fairly
- Reflect on how the FAIR Framework (Flexibility, Adaptability, Imagination, Resilience) shapes your thinking about liability and accountability
Reflection papers are submitted via Canvas. Specific dates and prompts will be provided in the course schedule.
Analysis Memos
In Weeks 7 and 12, you will complete two individual analysis memos (≅1,000 words each) that deepen your understanding of products liability doctrine and its application. You will be asked to:
- Apply doctrine to a contemporary scenario involving digital products or platforms
- Compare competing legal frameworks and their implications for risk allocation
- Evaluate practical challenges in applying doctrine to novel business models (algorithms, cloud services, AI systems)
- Assess how the law allocates responsibility fairly among companies, consumers, and society
- Reflect on how the FAIR Framework (Flexibility, Adaptability, Imagination, Resilience) shapes your thinking about liability and accountability
Analysis assignments are submitted via Canvas. Specific dates, scenarios, and detailed prompts will be provided in the course schedule.
Additional Assignments (TBD)
As the syllabus develops, we may add discussion posts, case-comparison exercises, scenario analyses, or other individual work. These will be specified in the course schedule and announced via Teams.
Engagement with Digital Tools & Artificial Intelligence (AI)
As part of your individual work and PL Project, you are encouraged (and sometimes required) to explore AI tools thoughtfully:
- Use ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or similar tools to brainstorm case analysis, draft policy arguments, or explore legal questions
- Use design tools to create visual assets for your WordPress project
- Test how AI handles products liability scenarios; reflect on where AI reasoning succeeds or fails
- Document your AI experimentation in team discussions and final project reflections
You must disclose all AI-assisted work in your deliverables and PL Project. See my policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI for detailed guidance on the required disclosure format and on how to integrate AI use responsibly into your analysis.
The PL Project: Team-Based Capstone Work
The PL Project is the primary deliverable for this course. You will work in small teams to analyze how products liability doctrine applies (or fails to apply) to digital products, platforms, and networks. This is not a theoretical exercise; it is a real investigation into how law must adapt to digital contexts.
What is the PL Project?
The PL Project asks your team to:
1. Select a Real Digital Product or Platform
Examples include:
- An AI hiring tool
- Social media algorithm
- Autonomous vehicle system
- Financial app
- Cryptocurrency exchange
- Cloud service
- Smart home device
2. Analyze How Products Liability Doctrine Applies
- Can you define a defect in this digital product/platform?
- Who is the manufacturer? Who else might be liable?
- What do existing PL theories (negligence, strict liability, warranty, fraud) say about this product’s risks?
- Can traditional doctrine accommodate digital products, or does it break?
3. Evaluate Whether Existing Doctrine is Adequate
- Where does the doctrine effectively protect consumers?
- Where do the doctrine’s assumptions fail in digital contexts?
- What gaps or inconsistencies emerge?
4. Propose Legal Responses
- Should regulation complement or replace tort law?
- Should doctrine adapt existing concepts (expand a product, redefine defect) or create new frameworks?
- How should manufacturers, platforms, and regulators respond?
5. Present Your Analysis in a Multimedia WordPress Portfolio
Your portfolio should combine:
- Text-based case analysis and policy arguments
- Visual infographics, timelines, and decision trees
- Interactive elements (scenario builders, liability flow charts)
- Multimedia storytelling (video, podcasts, or audio explainers)
Why This Project Matters
Products liability law is not keeping pace with digital innovation. Courts struggle with questions that traditional doctrine doesn’t clearly answer. By working through these questions systematically, you develop:
- Mastery of doctrine: You learn products liability law deeply by applying it to the frontier
- Judgment under uncertainty: You practice making legal recommendations when answers are contested
- Systems thinking: You recognize how multiple PL theories, regulatory frameworks, and business incentives interact
- Responsibility: You grapple with ethical questions: Who should bear the cost of digital harms?
The PL Project prepares you for careers where you’ll evaluate and advise on liability risk, compliance, and strategic response in emerging technology sectors.
A note on how this project works. The PL Project runs ahead of the course on purpose. You will regularly need doctrine, cases, and regulatory material we have not covered in class, and sometimes material that this course never covers at all. That is the assignment, not a gap in it. You are upper-level students, and a large part of what this project develops is the ability to find what you need, judge whether it is any good, and act on it without waiting to be told. Ask me when you are genuinely stuck. Ask yourself first.
Team Formation & Collaboration
Teams will consist of 3-4 students. I will form teams based on complementary skills and interests. All teamwork is documented in Microsoft Teams. Your team channel serves as the project workspace. You will:
- Brainstorm and refine your product selection
- Divide research responsibilities
- Share drafts and provide peer feedback
- Document decision-making and revisions
- Coordinate contributions to the WordPress site
- Prepare for team discussion and defense
All collaborative work must be visible in your Teams channel.I will monitor channels regularly to assess engagement, collaboration quality, and intellectual progress.
PL Project Phase Structure
Phase 1: Focus Selection & Preliminary Evaluation
What you will do:
- Select your digital product or platform from the shortlist provided, or propose an alternative for approval
- Articulate the core liability question(s)
- Conduct preliminary research on applicable law
- Create a preliminary analysis (≅900-1,500 words) identifying:
- The product/platform and its core features
- The central liability question
- A first pass at defect, using Chapters 2 through 4: what would count as a defect in this product, and does the consumer expectations test or the risk-utility test fit it better?
- Which PL theories do you expect to matter, and why? We do not reach negligence, warranty, and strict liability in class until Weeks 6 through 9, so at this point, you are working ahead of the syllabus. That is intended. Go find what you need, cite what you find, and be straight about where your reading is still thin.
- A preliminary assessment of whether traditional doctrine looks likely to reach this product at all
Deliverable:
- Focus selection, posted to your PL Project Teams channel
- Phase 1 Preliminary Evaluation, published to your PL Project WordPress site
Grading considerations:
- Clarity of product selection and liability question
- Evidence of preliminary legal research
- Quality of team collaboration (visible in Teams)
- Responsiveness to feedback
Due:
- End of Week 4 (see Course Schedule, Week 4/Class 7)
Phase 2: Interim Report
What you will do:
- Conduct deeper legal research
- Apply multiple PL theories to your product. By Week 8, the course has covered defects and their tests, negligence, misrepresentation, and warranty, so work those thoroughly. Strict liability, and the harder question of whether your product is a “product” at all, are not covered in class until Weeks 9 and 10. Take them on anyway, as far as your own research carries you. A report that reaches for the product question and tells me honestly how far it got is worth more than one that waits for the lecture.
- Identify where doctrine works and where it breaks down
- Explore the regulatory landscape and policy alternatives
- Begin designing multimedia elements
- Create an interim report (1,800-3,000 words) that:
- Summarizes existing PL doctrine relevant to your product
- Applies each doctrine to your specific fact pattern
- Identifies tensions and gaps
- Explores preliminary policy alternatives
Deliverable:
- Phase 2 Interim Report
Grading considerations:
- Depth of doctrine research and application
- Quality of critical analysis (where does doctrine work/break?)
- Evidence of multimedia planning
- Quality of team collaboration and communication
Due:
- End of Week 8 (see Course Schedule, Week 8/Class 14)
Phase 3: Final PL Project Portfolio
What you will do:
- Integrate all research and analysis into a cohesive, comprehensive WordPress portfolio
- Polish legal analysis and policy recommendations
- Develop final multimedia elements
- Create an executive summary
- Organize the portfolio for narrative and exploratory reading
Your WordPress site should include:
- Executive Summary: ≅400-600 word overview of the project, key findings, and recommendations
- Product Overview: Description and business context for your digital product/platform
- Legal Analysis: Structured analysis applying PL doctrine:
- Negligence theory
- Strict liability theory
- Warranty doctrine
- Misrepresentation and fraud
- Other relevant theories
- Critical Evaluation: Where does doctrine work? Where does it fail? What gaps emerge?
- Policy Recommendations: How should the law adapt? What regulatory or doctrinal changes would you recommend?
- Multimedia Elements: Visual infographics, timelines, decision trees, interactive scenario builders, video explainers
- Where your focus involves death, serious injury, or harm to minors, choose forms that inform without dramatizing. A doctrinal decision tree, a timeline of what the company knew and when, or an annotated chronology of the litigation all satisfy this requirement. An interactive simulation of the harm itself does not. If you are unsure whether a planned element is appropriate, clear it with me before you build it.
- FAIR Analysis: Apply the FAIR Framework (Flexibility, Adaptability, Imagination, Resilience) to the legal responses you propose, per Learning Outcome 3. Where the case turns on what a company knew and what it chose to do with that knowledge, address Integrity as the standard governing those four.
- Sources & Citations: Full citation list with links to cases, statutes, and secondary sources
Navigation & Organization:
- Your WordPress site should be easy to navigate; use clear headers and internal links
- Organize so that readers can follow either a narrative path (executive summary, full analysis, recommendations) or jump to specific topics
- Make multimedia elements discoverable and playable
- Ensure all citations are clickable (link to cases, statutes, law review articles when possible)
Deliverable:
- Final PL Project Portfolio
Due:
- End of Week 14, after Classes 24 and 25 (see Course Schedule)
Grading considerations:
- Depth of doctrine analysis: How thoroughly have you applied PL theory to your product? Do you engage multiple theories (negligence, strict liability, warranty, fraud, misrepresentation)? Are your source citations appropriate and well-explained?
- Critical evaluation: Where does existing doctrine work? Where does it fail? Do you articulate genuine tensions or gaps?
- Clarity & organization: Can readers follow your argument? Is the portfolio navigable? Are the conclusions clear?
- Multimedia quality: Do visual, interactive, and multimedia elements enhance understanding? Are they well-designed and purposeful (not mere decoration)?
- Feasibility of recommendations: Are your proposed legal responses realistic? Have you considered tradeoffs and potential objections?
- Use of sources: Proper source (legal and other) citation; engagement with both foundational cases and contemporary commentary on digital platforms and AI liability
Phase 4: PL Project Discussion & Defense
What you will do: Your team will facilitate a 15-20-minute class discussion on your project. Then respond to questions and critiques from peers and me. Format:
- Introduction: (2-3 min): Briefly introduce your product/platform and the liability question
- Core argument: (8-10 min): Present your key findings: How does existing doctrine apply? Where is it adequate? Where does it fail? What are your recommendations?
- Interactive element: (2-3 min): Walk the class through one multimedia or interactive element from your WordPress site
- Q&A: (5-10 min): Respond to peer and instructor questions; defend your reasoning; acknowledge limitations
Purpose:
- Develop communication skills, explaining complex legal analysis to a mixed audience
- Test your reasoning against live critique
- Contribute to the course’s collective learning about how PL doctrine must adapt
Grading considerations:
- Quality of presentation and clarity
- Depth and rigor of legal analysis
- Ability to defend your arguments under questioning
- Intellectual honesty about uncertainty and limitations
Due:
- Week 15, Classes 26 and 27 (see Course Schedule)
Submission & Reviewability Expectations
The PL Project is designed as an iterative, transparent body of workrather than a single end-of-semester submission. Assume throughout the semester that your work will be visible, revisited, questioned, and refined.
Team Channels in Microsoft Teams
All brainstorming, drafts, source collection, and internal discussions should be visible. Feedback and revisions should be documented. Your instructor will review channels regularly to assess engagement, collaboration, and intellectual evolution. Work that is not visible in Teams may be treated as incomplete, regardless of final product quality.
Formal Submissions at Each Phase
- Phase 1: Focus selection is posted to your PL Project Teams channel
- Phase 1: Preliminary Evaluation is published to your PL Project WordPress site
- Phase 2: Interim Report submission is published to your PL Project WordPress site and should reflect your current best thinking at that moment, not polished, but substantive
- Phase 3: Final PL Project Portfolio is published to your PL Project WordPress site and represents your most complete, coherent work
Revision between phases is expected and encouraged. The final PL Project Portfolio is assessed holistically, with attention to both the quality of the final synthesis and the trajectory of work that led to it.
Grading
The following weights are assigned to each component of your final grade:
Course Components & Grading Breakdown
| Component | Weight |
|---|---|
| Engagement & Participation | 20% |
| Individual Assignments | 20% |
| PL Project | 60% |
PL Project Breakdown
| Phase | Weight |
|---|---|
| Phase 1 & 2 | 15% |
| Phase 3 Final Portfolio | 30% |
| Phase 4 Discussion & Defense | 15% |
Assessment Criteria
Engagement & Participation (20%)
- Consistent attendance and punctuality
- Preparation (cases briefed, readings reviewed)
- Active contribution to discussions
- Respectful engagement with competing viewpoints
- Collaboration and peer support on your team PL Project
Individual Assignments (20%)
- Case evaluations demonstrate understanding of legal issues and business implications
- Reflection papers show synthesis and critical thinking
- Analysis memos apply doctrine to realistic scenarios with clarity
- Appropriate use and disclosure of AI use where applicable (see my policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI)
- Timely submission and incorporation of feedback
PL Project (60%)
- See detailed grading considerations for each phase above
Grade Appeal & Revision
You may request a brief feedback meeting with me to discuss your grade on any assignment or project phase. Bring evidence of your work and a specific question about grading criteria. I am open to discussing assessment, but will not raise grades based on effort alone; grades reflect the quality and depth of your analysis.
Other Course Components
Attendance
Regular attendance is expected. Class discussions and case analysis cannot be replicated outside the classroom. Missing more than 3 class sessions may result in a grade penalty and can negatively affect your engagement grade. If illness, emergency, or other circumstances prevent attendance, notify me via Teams as soon as possible.
Late Work
Individual assignments are due by the specified date on the course schedule. Late submissions are accepted with a 5% grade reduction per day late, unless you have made prior arrangements or have documented emergency circumstances. Reach out proactively if you anticipate missing a deadline. PL Project phase submissions have hard deadlines tied to the course schedule. Contact me immediately if your team cannot meet a deadline.
Accessibility & Accommodations
If you have documented disabilities or require accommodations, please contact SHU Student Disability Services and inform me as soon as possible. I am committed to working with you to ensure equitable access to course materials and learning opportunities.
Academic Integrity
All work must be your own (or your team’s) original analysis. Proper citation is required for all sources, including cases, articles, and online materials. Plagiarism, presenting another’s work as your own, is a serious violation of academic integrity and will result in a failing grade and potential disciplinary action. See my policy on Academic and Professional Integrity. When you use AI to assist with your work, you must clearly disclose this. See my policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI for detailed guidance. Undisclosed use of AI is treated as plagiarism.
Support & Resources
Writing Center
The SHU Writing Center offers free consultations on case briefs, memos, and essays. If you are unsure about the legal citation format or the clarity of your argument, get feedback early.
Research & Legal Sources
- Google Scholar: Free access to court opinions and some law review articles
- SSRN & JSTOR: Academic papers on products liability, AI law, and platform regulation
