Across the globe, legal systems are entering a period of profound transformation brought on by new technologies and alternative business models. Legal innovation backed by new technologies can drive down costs, make the delivery of legal services more productive, and facilitate better access to justice for citizens. In addition, as AI, Machine Learning and digital technology permeate more of our lives, they increasingly become the source of legally significant events which may challenge the structure and approach of the current law. This means that all those who study and/or practice law increasingly need to understand the digital context. At the same time, those who study computer science and/or develop software increasingly need to understand potential legal consequences of design choices. There are a number of research streams across the University which examine these challenges and how we can best respond to them, including, within the Law Faculty, an exciting and growing field of research in Law and Computer Science.

Within the Faculty the Computers and Law Research group includes a number of significant grant-funded projects, as listed above, and opportunities to discuss and share research are provided by a variety of lively and engaging discussion groups, listed in the box to the right. We also listed some of the selected recent publications of the members below.  

In addition and jointly with the Faculty of Computer Science, we run a postgraduate course in Law and Computer Science which is open to law students taking the BCL, MJur and MLF, and Computer Science Students in their fourth or MSc years.