Berkeley Law bans AI drafting, exam use starting Summer 2026

UC Berkeley School of Law will forbid students from using artificial intelligence in 'conceptualizing, outlining, drafting, revising, translating, or editing any work submitted for credit,' and will prohibit AI 'for any use for any purpose in any exam situation.' The rule takes effect Summer 2026, according to the policy posted by the Berkeley Law registrar.

The document lists the tasks it treats as off-limits in granular terms: asking a model to brainstorm topics, propose organizational structures, compose paragraphs, identify repetitive passages, correct grammar, generate exam outlines, or translate papers from other languages into English. Students are also barred from uploading 'course materials—including assignments, readings, slides, class recordings, or other class content—into generative AI systems.'

The one carve-out is narrow. 'AI can be used for research on papers ONLY for the limited purpose of identifying sources, such as cases, statutes, or secondary sources,' the rule states. Faculty retain room to override the default: instructors 'have the discretion to deviate from this default rule, provided that they do so in writing and with appropriate notice and require students to disclose any authorized AI use.'

'Citations to sources that do not exist will raise a presumption of prohibited AI use,' the policy warns, shifting the burden onto students whose work contains hallucinated authority. The faculty grounds the ban in skill formation, acknowledging that 'future lawyers may need to use artificial intelligence (\'AI\') fluently' while insisting the underlying thinking cannot be outsourced during training.

Three of the practitioners we track flagged the policy over the past week.