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2mo ago

UC Berkeley Law Bans Most Student Use of AI

Officials said fabricated citations and faulty legal analysis drove the change, signaling possible broader shifts in how law schools teach core legal skills.

UC Berkeley Law School announced a new policy Thursday prohibiting students from using artificial intelligence in preparing class assignments and in all exams.
The University of California, Berkeley Law School is implementing a stricter AI policy.

Overview

  • UC Berkeley Law announced on May 22, 2026 that a new policy effective this summer will bar students from using AI to conceptualize, outline, draft, revise, translate, or edit any work submitted for credit and will ban AI use in all exams.
  • The policy also forbids uploading course materials into generative systems and narrows AI research use to identifying sources, while placing full responsibility on students for the accuracy of their citations.
  • Citations to nonexistent cases or statutes will create a presumption of prohibited AI use, a rule intended to help detect improper reliance on tools that can fabricate authorities.
  • The school carved out limited exceptions for courses intentionally designed to teach AI fluency and for instructor-approved pedagogical uses, and it still allows tutoring and study aids in constrained ways.
  • Faculty pushed the change after rising incidents of AI-produced faulty legal analysis and fabricated citations, and administrators expect the move to prompt scrutiny and similar policy shifts at other law schools and in legal practice.