Computational Legal Studies


Book Description

Featuring contributions from a diverse set of experts, this thought-provoking book offers a visionary introduction to the computational turn in law and the resulting emergence of the computational legal studies field. It explores how computational data creation, collection, and analysis techniques are transforming the way in which we comprehend and study the law, and the implications that this has for the future of legal studies.




Legal Informatics


Book Description

This cutting-edge volume offers a theoretical and applied introduction to the emerging legal technology and informatics industry.




Computational Models of Argument


Book Description

The investigation of computational models of argument is a rich and fascinating interdisciplinary research field with two ultimate aims: the theoretical goal of understanding argumentation as a cognitive phenomenon by modeling it in computer programs, and the practical goal of supporting the development of computer-based systems able to engage in argumentation-related activities with human users or among themselves. The biennial International Conferences on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA) provide a dedicated forum for the presentation and discussion of the latest advancements in the field, and cover both basic research and innovative applications. This book presents the proceedings of COMMA 2020. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, COMMA 2020 was held as an online event on the originally scheduled dates of 8 -11 September 2020, organised by the University of Perugia, Italy. The book includes 28 full papers and 13 short papers selected from a total of 78 submissions, the abstracts of 3 invited talks and 13 demonstration abstracts. The interdisciplinary nature of the field is reflected, and contributions cover both theory and practice. Theoretical contributions include new formal models, the study of formal or computational properties of models, designs for implemented systems and experimental research. Practical papers include applications to medicine, law and criminal investigation, chatbots and online product reviews. The argument-mining trend from previous COMMA’s is continued, while an emerging trend this year is the use of argumentation for explainable AI. The book provided an overview of the latest work on computational models of argument, and will be of interest to all those working in the field.




Law as Data


Book Description

In recent years, the digitization of legal texts and developments in the fields of statistics, computer science, and data analytics have opened entirely new approaches to the study of law. This volume explores the new field of computational legal analysis, an approach marked by its use of legal texts as data. The emphasis herein is work that pushes methodological boundaries, either by using new tools to study longstanding questions within legal studies or by identifying new questions in response to developments in data availability and analysis. By using the text and underlying data of legal documents as the direct objects of quantitative statistical analysis, Law as Data introduces the legal world to the broad range of computational tools already proving themselves relevant to law scholarship and practice, and highlights the early steps in what promises to be an exciting new approach to studying the law.




Artificial Intelligence and Legal Analytics


Book Description

This book describes how text analytics and computational models of legal reasoning will improve legal IR and let computers help humans solve legal problems.




The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research


Book Description

The empirical study of law, legal systems and legal institutions is widely viewed as one of the most exciting and important intellectual developments in the modern history of legal research. Motivated by a conviction that legal phenomena can and should be understood not only in normative terms but also as social practices of political, economic and ethical significance, empirical legal researchers have used quantitative and qualitative methods to illuminate many aspects of law's meaning, operation and impact. In the 43 chapters of The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research leading scholars provide accessible and original discussions of the history, aims and methods of empirical research about law, as well as its achievements and potential. The Handbook has three parts. The first deals with the development and institutional context of empirical legal research. The second - and largest - part consists of critical accounts of empirical research on many aspects of the legal world - on criminal law, civil law, public law, regulatory law and international law; on lawyers, judicial institutions, legal procedures and evidence; and on legal pluralism and the public understanding of law. The third part introduces readers to the methods of empirical research, and its place in the law school curriculum.




Reasoning with Rules and Precedents


Book Description

Few areas of human expertise are so well understood that they can be completely reduced to general principles. Similarly, there are few domains in which experience is so extensive that every new problem precisely matches a previous problem whose solution is known. When neither rules nor examples are individually sufficient, problem-solving expertise depends on integrating both. This book presents a computational framework for the integration of rules and cases for analytic tasks typified by legal analysis. The book uses the framework for integrating cases and rules as a basis for a new model of legal precedents. This model explains how the theory under which a case is decided controls the case's precedential effect. The framework for integrating rules and cases is implemented in GREBE, a system for legal analysis. The book presents techniques for representing, indexing, and comparing complex cases and for converting justification structures based on rules and case into natural-language text. This book will interest researchers in artificial intelligence, particularly those involved in case-based reasoning, artificial intelligence and law, and formal models of argumentation, and to scholars in legal philosophy, jurisprudence, and analogical reasoning.




Law for Computer Scientists and Other Folk


Book Description

This book introduces law to computer scientists and other folk. Computer scientists develop, protect, and maintain computing systems in the broad sense of that term, whether hardware (a smartphone, a driverless car, a smart energy meter, a laptop, or a server), software (a program, an application programming interface or API, a module, code), or data (captured via cookies, sensors, APIs, or manual input). Computer scientists may be focused on security (e.g. cryptography), or on embedded systems (e.g. the Internet of Things), or on data science (e.g. machine learning). They may be closer to mathematicians or to electrical or electronic engineers, or they may work on the cusp of hardware and software, mathematical proofs and empirical testing. This book conveys the internal logic of legal practice, offering a hands-on introduction to the relevant domains of law, while firmly grounded in legal theory. It bridges the gap between two scientific practices, by presenting a coherent picture of the grammar and vocabulary of law and the rule of law, geared to those with no wish to become lawyers but nevertheless required to consider the salience of legal rights and obligations. Simultaneously, this book will help lawyers to review their own trade. It is a volume on law in an onlife world, presenting a grounded argument of what law does (speech act theory), how it emerged in the context of printed text (philosophy of technology), and how it confronts its new, data-driven environment. Book jacket.




Bioinformatics Law


Book Description

"Databases containing the accumulated genomic data of the research community are growing exponentially. This book contains cutting-edge insights from scholars, bioethicists and legal practitioners who work at the ever-changing intersection of law and bioinformatics"--Page 4 of cover.




The Oxford Handbook of Legal Studies


Book Description

This volume provides a widely acessible overview of legal scholarship at the dawn of the 21st century. Through 43 essays by leading legal scholars based in the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Germany, it provides a varied and stimulating set of road maps to guide readers through the increasingly large and conceptually sophisticated body of legal scholarship. Focusing mainly, though not exclusively, on scholarship in the English language and taking an international and comparative approach, the contributors offer original and interpretative accounts of the nature, themes, and preoccupations of research and writing about law. They then go on to consider likely trends in scholarship in the next decade or so.