Stacy-Ann Elvy

Position Title

Professor of Law

Stacy-Ann Elvy is a Professor of Law and Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall Research Scholar at the University of California, Davis School of Law. Her research focuses on “the commercial law of privacy” and its relationship to emerging technology, and human rights law.

Professor Elvy’s forthcoming book, THE CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK ON EMERGING ISSUES AT THE INTERSECTION OF COMMERCIAL LAW AND TECHNOLOGY (co-edited with Nancy Kim) (Cambridge University Press, 2024), explores several of the most recent and significant issues at the intersection of technology and commercial law, including issues pertaining to negotiated and standardized transactions. Her 2021 book, A COMMERCIAL LAW OF PRIVACY AND SECURITY FOR THE INTERNET OF THINGS (Cambridge University Press, 2021) focuses on the consumer and legal implications of the Internet of Things.

Professor Elvy 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 the Internet of Things. In 2021, she was selected to serve as a contributing peer review editor for the technology law section of the online legal journal Jotwell. Additionally, she serves as an executive committee member of the AALS Section on Commercial and Consumer Law and has also previously served as an observer to the ULC and ALI’s Joint Committee on the Uniform Commercial Code and Emerging Technologies.

Several of her articles have been identified and peer reviewed by distinguished legal scholars as some of the best scholarship relating to commercial law and privacy law. Her scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in leading legal journals and books, including the Iowa Law Review, Boston University Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, the Berkeley Journal of Law & Technology, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, Columbia Law Review, Boston College Law Review, Washington & Lee Law Review, Research Handbook on the Law of Artificial Intelligence (Edward Elgar Press), Emory International Law Review, and the University of Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, to name a few.

She has written several articles and presented at various conferences and roundtables evaluating the Internet of Things, 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.

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.

Education and Degree(s)

J.D. Harvard Law School
B.S. Cornell University

Research Interests & Expertise

Commercial Law
Privacy Law
Consumer Law
Technology Law
Human Rights
Civil Procedure

Publications

Books

THE CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK ON EMERGING ISSUES AT THE INTERSECTION OF COMMERCIAL LAW AND TECHNOLOGY (co-edited with Professor Nancy Kim (forthcoming Cambridge University Press 2024)

A COMMERCIAL LAW OF PRIVACY AND SECURITY FOR THE INTERNET OF THINGS (Cambridge University Press 2021)

Article, Essay & Book Chapter Publications

The Vehicle Monitoring and Collection Technology Era (Iowa Law Review (forthcoming 2024).

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., forthcoming Cambridge University Press 2024)

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.