The United States' gig economy framework is falling behind international standards, leaving independent contractors in the digital platform business without legal protections. This post argues that the United States should combine the frameworks used by Canada and the European Union to address the current legal gap for independent contractors and to lessen the instability across the current state-by-state laws.

As digital currencies evolve, the balance between public and private money has raised questions of sovereignty for the United States, putting the State at risk of ceding monetary control and, therefore, power to both private actors and foreign states. Volume XLIX staff editor Caroline Packard analyzes how U.S. policy favoring private Stablecoins and prohibiting a retail Central Bank Digital Currency may undermine the nation’s monetary control, contrasting this approach with the European Central Bank’s efforts to safeguard Europe’s sovereignty through a retail CDBC and accompanying regulations.

The EU AI Act, the EU's comprehensive law focused on regulating the use of and risks inherent in AI, requires compliance with the Act even by parties whose “outputs” generated by AI are then used in EU—including parties outside of the Union. Thus, where a company employs generative AI to create an advertisement, which subsequently lands in the EU, they are subject to the Act, and must disclose to consumers that the advertisement was made with AI—which is of particular concern for social media advertisements, which traverse international borders. Volume XLIX staff editor Olivia Lilley argues that United States and countries around the world should enact legislation that mirrors the EU AI Act in order to prevent their citizens from unintentionally violating the Act and facing serious fines.