Overview
Led by Dr Antoinette Nestor, Girton College
AI tools can cite law cases that don’t exist, or misdescribe real ones in ways that sound convincing. So how can a law student who is still learning the law spot an authoritative-looking answer that is wrong? This project will pilot two supervisions with Land Economy students. The first gives students an AI-generated research note with hidden errors. It tests a simple five-step method, PROVE, for checking legal authorities against the original source. The second asks students to defend their legal advice and adapt it when new facts emerge.
The project explores how supervisions can help students verify sources and reason for themselves. The output will be a toolkit for supervisors, with the exercises, guidance and a one-page PROVE guide. Its core questions apply well beyond law: what is the claim, where is the source, and does it really support the argument?
