Sorry for the delay, the topic committee has submitted the following resolutions to the Executive Secretary for the resolution ballot. Attached is also the committees thoughts on this years slate of resolutions to help with understanding some of the differences that the committee perceives between the resolutions.
 

Topic Ballot with Rationales

Top-Level Considerations

  • Given the nature of the topic area, the Topic Committee functioned with a greater-than-normal degree of uncertainty.
  • The Topic Committee endeavored to give the community choices on the many issues on which it did not fully agree, including agent (“US” v. “USFG”), verbs (“vest” v. “expand the class”), forms of personhood (“rights and/or duties” v. “rights” v. “legal persons”), and objects (no list, longer lists, shorter lists).
  • The Topic Committee’s research has so far found only a few “USFG key” warrants for affirmatives, but the Committee believes that work between now and the voting deadline may unearth more such affirmatives.
  • “Committee Notes” represent the Committee’s opinions, and debates under a particular resolution may play out differently than we anticipate.


Resolution 1 – US, Vest, Rights and duties, List of three (Yes AI, No Future Gens)

Resolved: The United States should vest legal rights and/or duties in one or more of the following: artificial intelligence, nature, nonhuman animal species.

Committee Notes: 

This resolution allows the affirmative to give a legal right (which likely means a right given and enforced by the law) or duty (likely an obligation or responsibility enforced by the law) to AI, nature, or animals. This resolution does not use the term personhood in any form. The resolution uses the “United States” rather than the “Federal Government.”

 

Resolution 2 – US, Vest, Rights, No duties, List of two (No AI, No Future Gens)

Resolved: The United States should vest legal rights in nature and/or nonhuman species.

Committee Notes: 

This resolution is exclusively about legal rights (which likely means a right given and enforced by the law) and is the smallest list (nature and animals). The exclusion of “duties” here likely does not limit out many affirmatives, as the nature and animals affs seem to be a lot more focused on rights than duties. This resolution does not use the term personhood in any form. The resolution uses the “United States” rather than the “Federal Government.” 

Resolution 3 – US, Vest, Rights, No duties, List of three (Yes AI, No Future Gens)

Resolved: The United States should vest legal rights in one or more of the following: artificial intelligence, nature, nonhuman animal species.

Committee Notes: 

This resolution allows the affirmative to give a legal right (which likely means a right given and enforced by the law) to AI, nature, or animals. The exclusion of “duties” here likely limits out AI affs about liabilities, or the capacity to sue AI. The justifications for a resolution that limited AI in this capacity were to offer a version that includes AI, but a bit smaller, and to attempt to guarantee the negative that arguments like AI bad would link. This resolution does not use the term personhood in any form. The resolution uses the “United States” rather than the “Federal Government.”

 

Resolution 4 – US, Expand class of entities, Legal persons, Broad

Resolved: The United States should expand the class of entities recognized as legal persons.

Committee Notes: 

This resolution adds another group to those conceived of as legal persons. This makes the core debate about legal personhood yes/no and likely makes the personhood PIC more competitive, encouraging the affirmative to engage in that debate. “Expand the class” also implies that the affirmative must give personhood to an entity that is not currently a person. “Class” implies a group rather than an individual. This topic also excludes the word “vest.”. This topic does not have a list. The committee does not have an exhaustive list of what would be included without a list. The resolution uses the “United States” rather than the “Federal Government.” 

 

Resolution 5 – US, Vest Rights and Duties, No personhood

Resolved: The United States should vest legal rights and/or duties in nonhuman entities it has not recognized as legal persons.

Committee Notes: 

This resolution allows the affirmative to give a legal right (which likely means a right given and enforced by the law) or duty (likely an obligation or responsibility enforced by the law) to anything not currently considered a legal person. This uses the term “not recognized as legal persons” to guarantee negative link uniqueness. The term “nonhuman” is meant to exclude future generations and fetal personhood affirmatives. Humans, ships, and corporations are currently recognized as legal persons. The committee does not have an exhaustive list of what would be included in this topic. The resolution uses the “United States” rather than the “Federal Government.”

Resolution 6 – US, Vest, Rights, No Duties, List of three (No AI, Yes Future Gens)

Resolved: The United States should vest legal rights in one or more of the following: future generations of humans, nature, nonhuman animal species.

Committee Notes: This resolution allows the affirmative to give a legal right (which likely means a right given and enforced by the law) to future generations, nature, or animals. The exclusion of “duties” here likely does not limit out many affirmatives, as the affs in this area seem to be a lot more focused on rights than duties. This resolution does not use the term personhood in any form. The resolution uses the “United States” rather than the “Federal Government.” 

Resolution 7 – USFG, Vest Rights and Duties, Broad

Resolved: The United States Federal Government should vest legal rights and/or duties in entities it has not recognized as legal persons.

Committee Notes: This resolution is “resolution E” with the term “Federal Government” added. The resolution uses the “United States Federal Government” as its agent. This resolution allows the affirmative to give a legal right (which likely means a right given and enforced by the law) or duty (likely an obligation or responsibility enforced by the law) to any new entity. This uses the term “not recognized as legal persons” to guarantee negative link uniqueness. Humans, ships, and corporations are currently recognized as legal persons.  The committee does not have an exhaustive list of what would be included in this topic. 

Resolution 8 – USFG, Vest, Rights, List of three (No AI, Yes Future Gens)

Resolved: The United States Federal Government should vest legal rights in one or more of the following: future generations of humans, nature, nonhuman animal species.

Committee Notes: This resolution is “resolution F” with the term “Federal Government” added. The resolution uses the “United States Federal Government” as its agent. This resolution allows the affirmative to give a legal right (which likely means a right given and enforced by the law) to future generations, nature, or animals. The exclusion of “duties” here likely does not limit out many affirmatives, as the affs in this area seem to be a lot more focused on rights than duties. This resolution does not use the term personhood in any form. 

 

Resolution 9 – USFG, Vest, Rights, List of four (Yes AI, Yes Future Gens)

Resolved: The United States Federal Government should vest legal rights in one or more of the following: artificial intelligence, future generations of humans, nature, nonhuman animal species.

Committee Notes: This resolution is “resolution H” with the category “artificial intelligence” added. The resolution uses the “United States Federal Government” as its agent. This resolution allows the affirmative to give a legal right (which likely means a right given and enforced by the law) to AI, future generations, nature, or animals. The exclusion of “duties” here likely only matters insofar as it limits the AI area. This resolution does not use the term personhood in any form. This is the only resolution with 4 items on the list.