Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2013

Abstract

A seminar on Artificial Intelligence ("Al") and Law can teach law students lessons about legal reasoning and legal practice in the digital age. Al and Law is a subfield of Al/computer science research that focuses on designing computer programs—computational models—that perform legal reasoning. These computational models are used in building tools to assist in legal practice and pedagogy and in studying legal reasoning in order to contribute to cognitive science and jurisprudence. Today, subject to a number of qualifications, computer programs can reason with legal rules, apply legal precedents, and even argue like a legal advocate.

This article provides a guide and examples to prepare law students for the digital age by means of an Al and Law seminar. After introducing the science of Artificial Intelligence and its application to law, the paper presents the syllabus for an up-to-date Al and Law seminar. With the Syllabus as a framework, the paper showcases some characteristic Al and Law programs, and illustrates the pedagogically important lessons that Al and Law has learned about reasoning with legal rules and cases, about legal argument and about the digital documents technologies that are becoming available, and even the norm, in legal practice.

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