The Legal Singularity: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Law Radically Better

by Abdi Aidid and Benjamin Alarie

Published: June 2023

Product Details

Imprint: University of Toronto Press

Page Count: 226 Pages

Illustrations: 6 b&w figures

Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.00

World Rights

226 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in, 6 b&w figures

Ebook - ePub

$44.95

ISBN: 9781487529437

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Description
Authors
Contents
Reviews
Awards
Subjects

1. Introducing the Legal Singularity
I. Introduction
II. What Is the Legal Singularity?
a. The Technological Singularity
b. The Economic Singularity
c. The Legal Singularity
III. Hazards Ahead
IV. Our Story and Objectives
V. Orienting Ourselves
VI. Towards the Legal Singularity

2. The Nature of Legal Information
I. Introduction
II. The Centrality of Information to Law
a. Law before Text
b. Prediction and Law’s Information Environment
III. Analogue, Digital, Computational
a. The Analog Era
b. The Digital Era
IV. The New Information Environment
a. Impact of Digitalization
b. Access to Data and Access to Justice
c. An Open Source Movement?

3. Computational Law
I. Introduction
II. Understanding Artificial Intelligence
III. Applying AI to the Law: Computational Law
a. Should Law Be Computed?
b. On “Computational Values”

4. Complete Law
I. Introduction
II. Incomplete Law and Its Problems
a. What Is Incomplete Law?
b. In Search of Specificity
c. Degradation of Legal Certainty
III. How Computation Encourages Completeness
IV. Complete, as in No Gaps – Not Complete, as in Done

5. Defending the Legal Singularity from Its Critics
I. Introduction
II. Is Computational Law Reductionist?
a. Pasquale, Hildebrandt, and Law’s Unquantifiable Essence
b. Ideology, Social Context, and the Legal Singularity
c. The Limits of Techno-Critique
III. Does the Legal Singularity Threaten the Rule of Law?
6. Implications for the Judiciary
I. Introduction
II. The Pitfalls of the Modern Judiciary
a. Biases and Human Weaknesses
b. Courthouse Overcrowding and Delayed Justice
c. The Implications of Court Design
III. Computational Solutions in the Courtroom
a. Human Experts
b. Legal Research
c. Document Drafting
d. Expert Evidence
e. Changes to Fact-Finding Procedures
f. Discovery
g. Predictive Technology
h. Case Management
i. Fair Settlements
IV. The Paradox of Judging in the Computational Era
a. Beyond Physical Courtrooms and Human Judges
i. Neural Laces
ii. Online Courts and Dispute Resolution
iii. Alternative Dispute Resolution
V. Possible Roadblocks to Adoption
VI. Looking Ahead: The Evolution of the Judiciary

7. Towards Universal Legal Literacy
I. Introduction
II. The Legal Profession’s Problem State
a. Problem I: The Market for Legal Services
i. The Unaffordability Problem
ii. Consequences of Unaffordability
iii. Responses to the Unaffordability Problem by the Legal Profession
b. Problem II: Excessive Legal Complexity
III. The Solution: Universal Legal Literacy
a. Imagining Universal Legal Literacy
b. Universal Legal Literacy in the Legal Singularity

8. Implications for Governments
I. Introduction
II. Governments and Technology
III. Artificially Intelligent Governments
IV. Current Government Applications of AI
V. Applications of AI in Service Provision and Regulation
a. Tax Regulation
b. Government Benefits Programs
c. Immigration
VI. Applications of AI in Legislation
a. Drafting Legislation
b. Normative Contributions and Second-Order Modelling

9. Towards Ethical and Equitable Legal Prediction
I. Introduction
II. The Problem Framework
a. Reflection and Amplification Problems
b. Techno-Epistemic Problems

10. Conclusion

Afterword
Acknowledgments
Index

"This beautifully written book makes a compelling case that law as we know it will change dramatically, and that justice will be the biggest beneficiary of that change. The opportunity that singularity presents is the chance to deliver – finally – on law’s promise, a promise it has so far left unfulfilled."
Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School

"In The Legal Singularity, Abdi Aidid and Benjamin Alarie offer a bold and optimistic prognosis about the future of AI in law and its institutions. This book is a thought-provoking contribution to computational law scholarship and is certain to drive critical discussions in the field."
Amy Salyzyn, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa

"This is a powerful and important book. The fundamental insight – that artificial intelligence will transform not just the specific content of particular legal rules but also the general nature of law – is surely correct and the conclusion is impossible to ignore. The deep learning, systematic breadth, and crisp clarity with which Aidid and Alarie prosecute their argument makes The Legal Singularity essential reading for legal theorists."
Daniel Markovits, Guido Calabresi Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Private Law, Yale Law School

"In their path-breaking book, the authors, both law and technology scholars and active technology practitioners, probe the potential for AI to transform most aspects of law: teaching, research, practice, judging, and the public’s access to justice. This book will become a leading source of insights and measured judgments on profound issues imminently confronting all aspects of the legal profession as an information-intensive industry."
Michael J. Trebilcock, University Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

"I am sure that AI will be transformative for law and legal institutions and can make dramatic progress on a persistent and massive access to justice crisis. Abdi Aidid and Benjamin Alarie have put together a careful case for how, indeed, to make law radically better."
Gillian K. Hadfield, Director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto and Senior Policy Advisor of OpenAI

"Timely, challenging, and profound, The Legal Singularity is an important contribution to the current debate on the extent to which it is possible and desirable for AI to be widely deployed in the delivery of legal and court services. A book that deserves to be read widely by naysayers and evangelists alike, Abdi Aidid and Benjamin Alarie neatly combine jurisprudential scholarship with practical experience of legal technology."
Richard Susskind OBE KC (Hon), author of Tomorrow’s Lawyers