ALP2023 :: AI & Access to Justice :: AI4Legs-II :: Annotation of Legal Data :: Doctoral consortium

ALP 2023: Workshop on AI, Law and Philosophy

These are exciting times for the field of AI & Law: at the same time we read that an AI system passes the bar exam, and also that lawyers submit computer-generated briefs to court—which turn out to be filled with legal bogus. In this workshop, we aim to take the time for philosophical reflection of where we stand and what can be expected. The workshop brings together enthusiastic young researchers and experienced experts interested in the interface between AI, law and philosophy. In this way, we aim to connect to the “computational legal theory” tradition in the field of AI and Law.

Possible questions to be addressed: Can large language models solve legal cases and explain their reasoning? Is it enough when AI systems outperform humans in doing a legal task? And, in this connection, what do we mean by ‘outperform’? What is legal interpretation, computationally? What is legal justification, computationally? What is legal fact finding, computationally? What is law, computationally? How do rules and cases (and principles) interact, computationally? Can AI systems do proper law by data collection alone, or is a human in the loop necessary? Should we admit AI systems in official legal functions? Why (not)? What are the differences between natural and artificial intelligence that justify a different role in legal practice? Are AI systems inherently more dangerous than existing legal mechanisms in society (corporations, governmental organisations, legislative bodies)?


AI & Access to Justice

This workshop will bring together lawyers, computer scientists, and social science researchers to discuss their findings and proposals around how AI might be used to improve access to justice, as well as how to hold AI models accountable for the public good. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Identify the key challenges and opportunities for using AI to improve access to justice.
  • Identify the key challenges and opportunities of building new data sets, benchmarks, and research infrastructure for AI for access to justice.
  • Discuss the ethical and legal implications of using AI in the legal system, particularly for tasks related to people who cannot afford full legal representation.
  • Develop proposals for how to hold AI models accountable for the public good.

The workshop will be conducted in a hybrid form and will consist of a mix of presentations, panel discussions, and breakout sessions. Participants will have the opportunity to share their own work and learn from the expertise of others.


AI4Legs-II: 2nd Workshop on AI for Legislation

Can the Law be written by GPT-4? Can the members of the parliament use ChatGPT for improving their knowledge of the society needs? Can the Law be converted into programming code using AI/ML and logic formulae without losing legal theory principles, legal linguistic expressivity, and Constitutional principles? Can the digital format of Law be equally valid and considered a legitimate Legal Source, and under which conditions? Can a whole Legal System –including its diachronic dimension – be managed in a digital manner by using knowledge Graphs, Semantic Web techniques, Legal ontologies, Logic theory? Can a such translation be made automatically executable using Smart Contracts and immediately enforceable? How to render the “Law as Code” to the common citizen in a simple, yet transparent and accountable manner? Can an explicit normative statement be expressed natively in code or in non-linguistic signs (e.g., icons)? Which principles are necessary in order to not compress the Rule of Law and Democratic principles? What new legal theory is needed for a deep digital transformation of the legislative process that produces a digital format of Law with an innovative generative and constitutive modality instead of converting text (logos) into code? How to produce Law in non-textual norms while preserving normativity? How to improve the legislative process using AI/ML for better regulation?

This workshop would like to discuss these challenging questions with interdisciplinary instruments coming from philosophy of law, Constitutional law, legal informatics including AI & Law, computational linguistics, computer science, HCI and Legal design. We intend also to discuss the state of the art of the most advanced applications of AI in support of the better regulation, law-making system, aims to find answers to these questions using.


Legal data annotation plays a pivotal role in enhancing AI systems within the legal domain. The workshop aims to provide a platform for in-depth discussions, knowledge sharing, demonstrations, and practical insights into the challenges and opportunities of annotating legal data. The workshop is designed to bring together researchers and experts interested in exploring the nuances of annotating legal data, with a focus on topics such as software tools, annotator training, inter-rater and intra-rater reliability, and the publication of data and metadata. The workshop is organized in connection with the JURIX 2023 conference in Maastricht.

Topics:

  • Annotation Software: Explore the available software tools and platforms for legal data annotation, including their features, advantages, and limitations.
  • Annotator Training: Delve into effective methods for training annotators to ensure the quality and consistency of annotated legal data.
  • Inter-Rater and Intra-Rater Reliability: Share experiencing regarding how to calculate and assess the reliability of human annotators in legal data annotation projects.
  • Publishing (meta)Data: Discuss strategies for effectively publishing metadata related to annotated legal data, including standards and best practices.

We invite submissions related to the workshop topics. Submissions will undergo a workshop-level review process, focusing on overall quality, relevance, and diversity of topics. Accepted submissions will have the opportunity to be presented during the workshop. In-person participation is preferred, but hybrid (online) participation is nevertheless possible.

  • Organizers: Gijs van Dijck (Maastricht University), Jelena Mitrovic (University of Passau), Daniel Braun (University of Twente), Rohan Nanda (Maastricht University).

  • Submission: Proposals for demos and discussion papers can be submitted, either by means of abstracts (2-3 pages) or a paper (4-12 pages) (using the IOS formatting guidelines available at https://www.iospress.com/book-article-instructions). Submissions can be emailed to law-techlab@maastrichtuniversity.nl. Submission Deadline: 7 November, 2023. Notification: 13 November, 2023.


JURIX 2023 Doctoral Consortium

The Jurix 2023 Doctoral Consortium aims at promoting the exchange of ideas from PhD researchers in the area of Artificial Intelligence and Law, and at providing them an opportunity to interact and receive feedback from leading scholars and experts in the field. Specifically, the Consortium seeks to provide opportunities for PhD students to:

  • obtain fruitful feedback and advice on their research projects;
  • meet experts from different backgrounds working on topics related to the AI & Law and Legal Information Systems fields;
  • have a face to face mentoring discussion on the topic and methodology of the PhD with an international senior scholar;
  • discuss concerns about research, supervision, the job market, and other career-related issues.

To be eligible for the Consortium, a candidate must be a current doctoral student within a recognised university. Ideally, the candidate should have at least 12 months of work remaining before expected completion. The participants of the Doctoral Consortium are encouraged to register for and attend the main conference. The PhD student should be the sole author of the submission.