Research Spotlight: Meet the Student Team Powering the Digital Democracy Lab
This spring and summer, over 25 students supported the Digital Democracy Lab, contributing to exciting research projects on AI governance and the impact of emerging technology on democratic norms and institutions.
Digital Democracy Lab Director Margaret Hu, the Davison M. Douglas Professor of Law at William & Mary Law School, regularly recruits research assistants, but the 2026 research team is the largest she’s ever hired.
Over 25 students are supporting the Digital Democracy Lab in 2026, including William & Mary Law and undergraduate students, and graduate students. Some of the law student research assistants were even incoming 1L law students who sought out the chance to work with Professor Hu, before classes started.
The talented team collaborated well together. The research support provided by student researchers was critical in 2026. The Digital Democracy Lab has undertaken multiple projects to examine the impact of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution, as the celebration unfolds in the midst of the AI Revolution.
Following the success of Professor Hu’s AI Law and Policy (Aspen Publishing) textbook and casebook in Fall 2025, and the publication of Introduction to AI Law and Policy: Primary Legal and Policy Sources on AI Governance (Aspen Publishing) textbook in Summer 2026, the spring and summer research assistants have been balancing multiple research projects. One project is supporting Professor Hu’s forthcoming legal treatise on AI law and policy, as well as updating the companion books ahead of the second editions. Professor Hu’s AI Law and Policy is the first-ever textbook and casebook published by a major academic press about AI and the law that is considered comprehensive in scope, as it required almost a decade of research and is over 1100 pages in length. Aspen Publishing recently shared that within the first 6 months of publication, AI Law and Policy has been adopted by dozens of law schools, as well as undergraduate classrooms. The publisher estimates that approximately 10-12% of all U.S. law schools are now teaching from Professor Hu’s AI Law and Policy textbook and casebook. The spring and summer research team’s work will make a tangible impact helping students better understand the legal landscape of AI.
Additionally, the 2026 research team thus far has worked on academic article projects, prepared materials for conference presentations and testimony before government bodies, and AI literacy initiatives. The Digital Democracy Lab advances the need view AI literacy as fundamental to democratic reinforcement and national security. The AI Law and Policy book projects underscore the need for curricular tools to ensure democratic institutions, citizens, and citizen lawyers, possess a common vocabulary for effective policymaking in the AI Revolution.
The Digital Democracy Lab at W&M Law School conducts and disseminates interdisciplinary research on a web of national priorities focusing on the intersection of democracy and emerging technologies. As democratic institutions struggle to adapt to the digital world, particularly AI and other emerging technologies, the Digital Democracy lab focuses on providing legal scholarship to inform digital technology policy and regulation.
The Digital Democracy Lab places William & Mary at the forefront of a national conversation on these important technological and legal advances, and its profound consequence on democratic institutions and the rule of law. Learn more about the Digital Democracy Lab here.
