Position Title
Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law
Stacy-Ann Elvy is a Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis School of Law. Through her research, she conducts normative and positive evaluations of the legal, consumer and societal implications of emerging technologies, including, but not limited to, artificial intelligence, neurotechnologies and the internet of things.
Several of her articles have been identified and peer reviewed by distinguished legal scholars in the online legal journal Jotwell as some of the most compelling and significant scholarship exploring novel technological developments impacting commercial law and privacy law. Her scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in leading legal journals and books, including the Columbia Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, American Bankruptcy Law Journal, Boston College Law Review, Boston University Law Review, Iowa Law Review, the Berkeley Journal of Law & Technology, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, Washington & Lee Law Review, Research Handbook on the Law of Artificial Intelligence (Edward Elgar Press), and Emory International Law Review, to name a few.
Professor Elvy has authored and co-edited three books. The Cambridge Handbook on Neurotechnology and the Law (co-edited with others) (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2028) examines how emerging neurotechnologies enhanced by artificial intelligence challenge foundational doctrines in several areas of domestic and international law. The Cambridge Handbook on Emerging Issues at the Intersection of Commercial Law and Technology (co-edited with Nancy Kim) (Cambridge University Press 2025) explores several of the most recent and significant issues at the intersection of technology and commercial law, including issues pertaining to artificial intelligence and contract formation, quantum privacy and non-fungible tokens. Professor Elvy is the sole author of A Commercial Law of Privacy and Security for the Internet of Things (Cambridge University Press 2021) which critically and comprehensively evaluates the consumer and legal implications of the internet of things.
Professor Elvy has presented at various conferences and roundtables evaluating emerging technologies, including serving as an invited speaker at the Centre for European Policy Studies Ideas Lab Conference in Belgium and an exclusive internet of things roundtable held by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security.
Professor Elvy is an American Bar Foundation Fellow, and she has served as an adviser to the American Law Institute’s Principles for a Data Economy project. In 2022, she was invited by the UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab to serve as an expert and to contribute an expert think piece on novel technologies. Additionally, she serves as the Chair of the AALS Section on Commercial and Consumer Law. Professor Elvy has also served as an observer to the ULC and ALI’s Joint Committee on the Uniform Commercial Code and Emerging Technologies and the Committee on Mental Privacy, Cognitive Biometrics, and Neural Data.
In 2019, Professor Elvy received both the Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award and the UC Davis CAMPSSAH Faculty Scholar Award. In 2017, Professor Elvy was selected to serve as the Vice Chair of the Article 2 Uniform Commercial Code Committee of the American Bar Association. In 2016, she received the Rising Legal Star Award from the New York Law Journal after being selected from a field of nearly 300 nominees of New York lawyers. Professor Elvy joined the legal academy after practicing law at Akerman Senterffit and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
- J.D. Harvard Law School
- B.S. Cornell University
- Commercial Law
- Privacy Law
- Consumer Law
- Technology Law
- Human Rights
- Civil Procedure
Publications
Books
THE CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK ON NEUROTECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW (co-edited with others) (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2028)
THE CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK ON EMERGING ISSUES AT THE INTERSECTION OF COMMERCIAL LAW AND TECHNOLOGY (co-edited with Professor Nancy Kim) (Cambridge University Press 2025)
A COMMERCIAL LAW OF PRIVACY AND SECURITY FOR THE INTERNET OF THINGS (Cambridge University Press 2021)
Article, Essay & Book Chapter Publications
Reconceptualizing Privacy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (forthcoming 2027)
Converging Frontiers: Artificial Intelligence and Mass Market Neurotechnologies (forthcoming 2027)
Remote Disablement and the Uniform Commercial Code, (forthcoming American Bankruptcy Law Journal 2026)
Crossroads: Privacy Law and Copyright Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence in JOTWELL: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) (2025) (reviewing Alicia Solow-Niederman, AI and Doctrinal Collapse, 78 Stan. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2026), available at https://cyber.jotwell.com/crossroads-privacy-law-and-copyright-law-in-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence/
Federal Civil Litigation in the Age of Generative AI in JOTWELL: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) (2025) (reviewing Jessica R. Gunder, Rule 11 is No Match for Generative AI, 27 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 308 (2024)) available at https://cyber.jotwell.com/federal-civil-litigation-in-the-age-of-generative-ai/
The Vehicle Monitoring and Collection Technology Era 110 Iowa L. Rev. 43 (2024) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5022874
E-Commerce Platforms as Product Merchants and Sellers, in THE CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK ON EMERGING ISSUES AT THE INTERSECTION OF COMMERCIAL LAW AND TECHNOLOGY (Stacy-Ann Elvy and Nancy Kim ed., Cambridge University Press 2025) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5024750
Age-Appropriate Design Code Mandates 45 Univ. of Pennsylvania J. of Int’l Law 953 (2024) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4872157
Privacy Law’s Consent Conundrum, 104 Boston Univ. L. Rev. 641 (2024) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4830101
Commercial Law as a Source of Privacy and Data Security Protection 37 Harv. J. of L. & Tech. 1177 (2024) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4830097.
Data-CASE: Grounding Data Regulations for Compliant Data Processing Systems, V. Chakraborty, S. Elvy et. al., International Conference on Extending Database Technology (EDBT) Journal (2023) available at https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.07501
Realizing a Right to Privacy and Cybersecurity through California’s Commercial Law, Berkeley Technology Law Journal (2023) available at https://btlj.org/2023/10/realizing-a-right-to-privacy-and-cybersecurity-through-californias-commercial-law/
Centering Educational Institutions as Potential Sources of Privacy Violations in JOTWELL: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) (reviewing The Private Life of Education by Fanna Gamal, 75 Stan. L. Rev. 83 (2023)) (2023) available at https://cyber.jotwell.com/centering-educational-institutions-as-potential-sources-of-student-privacy-violations/
Novel Language Models as a Technological Solution to the No-Reading Problem in JOTWELL: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) (reviewing Contracts in the Age of Smart Readers by Yonathan A. Arbel & Samuel Becher, 90 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 83 (2022)) (2022) available at https://cyber.jotwell.com/novel-language-models-as-a-technological-solution-to-the-no-reading-problem/
Automated Algorithmic Decision-Making Systems in Consumer Lending Transactions in JOTWELL: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) (reviewing “Discrimination on Wheels: How Big Data Uses License Plate Surveillance to Put the Brakes on Disadvantaged Drivers” by Nicole McConlogue) (2021)
Commodifying Consumer Data in the Era of the Internet of Things, 59 BOSTON COLLEGE L. REV. 423 (2018) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3058855 (winner of the 2019 Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award for best full-time faculty article); (peer reviewed in JOTWELL: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots), Oct. 28, 2019, https://contracts.jotwell.com/paying-to-be-the-product/)
Paying for Privacy and the Personal Data Economy, 117 COLUMBIA L. REV. 1369 (2017) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfmabstract_id=3058835 (peer reviewed in JOTWELL: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots), Jan. 8, 2018, https://cyber.jotwell.com/money-life-understanding-modern-privacy/)
The Artificially Intelligent Internet of Things and Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code in RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON THE LAW OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (Woodrow Barfield ed., Edward Elgar Publishing) (2018) pre-publication draft available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3046558
Hybrid Transactions and the Internet of Things: Goods, Services or Software? 74 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 75 (2017) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2939387
Contracting in the Age of the Internet of Things: Article 2 of the UCC and Beyond, 44 HOFSTRA L. REV. 839 (2016) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2857973 (peer reviewed in JOTWELL: The Journal of Things We Like (Lots), Dec. 5, 2016, https://contracts.jotwell.com/is-contract-law-ready-for-the-internet-of-things/)
A Postcolonial Theory of Spousal Rape: The Caribbean and Beyond, 22 MICH. J. GENDER & L. 89 (2015) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2616334
Towards a New Democratic Africa: The African Charter on Democracy, Elections, and Governance, 27 EMORY INT'l L. REV. 41 (2013) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2292733
Theories of State Compliance with International Law: Assessing the African Union’s Ability to Ensure State Compliance with the African Charter and Constitutive Act, 41 GA. J. INT'l & COMP. L. 75 (2012) available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2292731
Op-Ed Publications
States Are Protecting Children’s Online Privacy But Congress Still Needs to Act, THE HILL, May 22, 2024 available at https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4674772-states-are-protecting-childrens-online-privacy-but-congress-still-needs-to-act/
Hope for Darfur Comes with New International Criminal Court Prosecutor, FORT MYERS NEWS-PRESS, June 27, 2012.