Data-driven Law on Edge?
In this workshop, we will discuss some recent work by Prof. dr. Mireille Hildebrandt, the Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded project 'Counting as a Human Being the Era of Computational Law (COHUBICOL)' and Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Research in Computational Law (CRCL).
Abstract
Why would anybody want to wash their laundry by hand if one has a washing machine? Or walk 10 miles if one could drive? Does the same logic apply to automation in law: why not have the right kind of software to do the heavy lifting (e.g. search for precedent, for the applicable legislation, for a line of argumentation or for the relevant doctrine)? In my talk I will challenge the idea that automation is just a matter of efficiency, doing faster and cheaper what lawyers would otherwise have done by hand, as well as the idea that using AI in law will necessarily diminish human agency and destroy the practical wisdom of legal practitioners and legal scholar alike. By way of example I will turn to the claims made on account of Westlaw Edge, raising some of the questions that emerge when integrating AI into legal practice. The point of the inquiry will be to tease out how the use of data-driven ‘law’ may affect both law and the rule of law, and how we could preserve and/or reinvent them in the era of computational legal technologies.
Pre-reading
- Data-driven prediction of judgment. Law’s new mode of existence?
- A philosophy of technology for computational law
Schedule
- 1.00pm - 1.30pm: Online networking (feel free to bring your own refreshments)
- 1.30pm - 2.15pm: Opening talk
- 2.15pm - 2.45pm: Q&A
- 2.45pm - 3.00pm: Open discussion
To attend this event, please register below.