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Email

cpm49@cam.ac.uk

College Contact Details

Room: Centre for Business Research

Tel: (0)1223 765320


Affiliated Lecturer

PhD (Cambridge), LLB (Manchester), B.A, M.A. (Toronto)

Interests

Leverhulme Research Project: 2018-2021: Lex Ex Machina: From Rule of Law to Legal Singularity

Lawyers, economists and technologists are forecasting fundamental changes to the legal system and provision of legal services. Technological advancements, globalisation and the emergence of alternative legal service providers are contributing to a growing sense of destabilisation and uncertainty about the future of the legal practice, education and the conceptual foundations of the law itself. It seems that the knowledge and expertise of lawyers and judges is now at stake; with the burgeoning LegalTech industry mapping out what legal processes—and implicitly: legal concepts—might be amenable to proprietary interpretation and automation. With algorithmic decision systems seeping into more aspects of public and private sector contexts--doing legal 'work' more cheaply, quickly and effectively than humans--some suggest that the law is approaching a 'legal singularity': a hypothetical point at which the functional capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) vastly surpasses those of human lawyers and judges. But what does this mean for the future of law and the role of human decision-making? 

One consequence of digitalisation, AI and Machine Learning (ML) is that it has made previously tacit and conventional knowledge encodable and computable. This process is, however, not altogether new. A similar thing occurred, for example, in the transformation of the tacit knowledge of the silk weavers’ guild into a mechanised process thanks to the invention of the Jacquard loom in the early years of the last industrial revolution. When applied both to adjudication and lawmaking, algorithms promise powerful increases in speed and accuracy in legal decision-making, perhaps also eliminating the biases that can permeate human judgment. Furthermore, using ML to automate lawmaking and enforcement might prove especially useful, even essential, for overseeing automated private-sector activity, such as high-speed securities trading. According to some optimistic appraisals, there is no aspect of lawmaking and adjudication that cannot be improved upon or replaced by machines. 

Despite these apparent advantages, the spectre of 'rule by algorithm' has begun to raise alarm. Algorithmic adjudication and lawmaking imply a loss of autonomy and control over self-government. If the law was nothing more than an elaborate series of rules than perhaps many aspects of it would be amenable to mathemistation and automation. However, law seems to entail more than that, and there might be some irreducible quality to social facts, legal concepts and processes that cannot be imputed computationally, or at least not completely. If this is so, the question becomes: are there limits to the computability of legal processes and concepts? Are there contexts where computers should not be trusted to make consequential decisions, and thus prohibited entirely? How do we identify, define and justify what those contexts are when the allure of ever-greater efficiency is hard for governments and courts to resist?

The answer to these question is profoundly consequential for the growth of the LegalTech industry and the shift towards an increasingly algorithmic and computational legal system. Would such a system really be more fair, equitable or accessible? Or simply one where the 'unquestionable effectiveness of mathematics' is used to legitimise and entrench algorithmic authority in society? The replacement of human juridical reasoning with computation risks undermining the legal system as one of the principal institutions of a liberal-democratic order. As such, the line between 'improvement' and 'replacement' cannot be drawn until the consequences of redrawing it haphazardly are clarified. This research project is an attempt to explore and clarify those consequences for the future of law as a social institution.

General Research Interests

  • Societal Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Computability of Law/Legal Norms
  • Governance of AI & Emerging Technologies
  • LegalTech, Algorithmic Decision Making and 'Robot Judges'
  • Legal Evolution
  • Future of Law/Legal Education/Profession
  • Cybernetics
  • Industrial Strategy
  • Complex Systems
  • Chaos
  • Philosophy of Science & Technology
  • Singularities Legal, Economic, Political et al.

Awards/Grants

    Teaching

    • Dickson Poon School of Law, Kings College London, 'Artificial Intelligence, Law and Society' (LLM), Course Director, 2019-Current
    • Faculty of Law, The University of Cambridge, 'Economics of Law and Regulation' (LLM), Affiliated Lecturer, 2017-Current
    • Department of Land Economy, The University of Cambridge, 'Legal Methods (Paper 5)', Affiliated Lecturer & Supervisor, 2017-2019
    • Department of Land Economy, The University of Cambridge, 'Law and Economics (Paper 12)', Affiliated Lecturer & Supervisor, 2016-2019

    Professional Associations

    CV / Biography

    Books

    Book Chapters

    Articles

    Selected Media​

    Selected Papers/Keynotes/Panels

    • 'LegalTech and The Computational Hermeneutic' Keynote, Catholic University, Lublin, Poland, 1 December 2020
    • 'Characteristica Universalis Lex: Artificial Intelligence and the Ghosts of LegalTech Past', Faculty of Law, McGill University, 30 October 2020
    • 'Predictive Policing and Rule of Technology' (w/ Antioinette DuRuvroy), Council of Europe, 2 July 2020
    • 'Law and Labour in the Era of AI'  (w/ Callum Chace), BankInter Foundation, 30 June 2020
    • 'Lex Ex Machina: AI, Robot Judges and the Dangers of Rule Following Machines'  Holocaust Memorial, Montreal, Canada, 24 March 2020
    • 'Artificial intelligence, the human brain and neuroethics' (w/ Professor Barbara Sahakian), Cambridge Science Festival, University of Cambridge, 18 March 2020
    • 'AI Mythbusting: Separating Science Fact from Fiction' (w/ Jennifer Cobbe), Cambridge Science Festival, University of Cambridge, 11 March 2020
    • 'Introvert Narwhals: AI and the Future of Creativity' Silesian Science Festival, Katowice, Poland, 25-28 January 2020
    • 'Of Referees and Robot Judges' Keynote Address, Korean Judicial Research Training Institute, Seoul, December 2019
    • 'Lex Ex Machina: From Rule of Law to Legal Singularity’ Public Lecture, University of Münster, 28 October 2019
    • 'Lex Ex Machina: AI, Labour and the Automation of Human Dignity'  International Employment Congress, San Sebastián, Spain, 21 October 2019
    • 'Should AI replace judges and lawyers?' Cambridge Festival of Ideas, Old Divinity School, St John's College, University of Cambridge, 18 October 2019
    • 'Technology, Society & Democracy' (w/ Serj Tankian, Evegeny Morozov, Eric Brinde & Matthew Feeney)   World Congress on Information Technology 2019, Yerevan, Armenia, 10 October 2019 
    • 'Of Robot Judges and Referees', New Trends in the Common Law, Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, London, 2 September 2019
    • 'The Algorithmic Economy And The Law in 21st Century Digital Capitalism' Regulating for Decent Work Conference, International Labour Organisation, Geneva, 8-10 July 2019
    • 'Lex Ex Machina: The Limit's of Law's Computability' Data-Driven Personalisation and the Law, University of Southampton, 27-28 June 2019
    • 'De:Coded: Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property' IP Office/WIPO, Olympic Stadium, London, 18 June 2019
    • 'Dirty Data, Bad Decisions' (panelist), Cognition X, London, 10 June 2019
    • 'Introvert Narwhals: How AI Affects Our Culture' Cheltenham Science Festival, 8 June 2019.
    • 'Rule by Algorithm: The History of Cybernetics in Law from Cybersyn to Smart Cities' Faculty of Law, The University of Cambridge, Programme in Private European Law, 23 March 2019
    • 'Governance by Numbers When Numbers Don’t Lie: Dataism, Smart Cities, and the Architecture of the Legal Singularity' Surrey Workshop on Regulating AI, University of Surrey, 21-22 March 2019
    • 'Is Technology Making Us Miserable?' Cambridge Science Festival, Jesus College, University of Cambridge, 11 March 2019
    • 'Smart Cities and Ubiquitous Artificial Intelligence' Social Sciences and Law Interdisciplinary Conference, Jesus College, University of Cambridge, 3 March 2018
    • 'Law, Technology & Labour: The Case of Artificial Intelligence' The Future of Labour Markets Conference, UK Cabinet Office/Open Innovation Team, 14 December 2017
    • 'What Role For Law in AI?' University of Krakow, Programme in Private European Law, 20 January 2017
    • 'Complexity Theory as a Paradigm for Artificial Intelligence Regulation' Cambridge Conference on Catastrophic Risk, Clare College, The University of Cambridge, 12 December 2016
    • ‘Courtroom Application of Virtual Reality’, London, Bar Standards Board, 8 December 2016
    • 'Law, Work and Technology: A Systems Approach' Rustat Conference on the Future of Work, Jesus College, The University of Cambridge, 22 November 2016
    • 'How Should The Law Think About AI?' Society of Legal Scholars Conference, Jesus College, The University of Oxford, 5 October 2016

    Blogs/Editorials

    Publications

     

    Books

    Is Law Computable? Critical Perspectives on Law + Artifical Intelligence (ed) (Hart Publishing), forthcoming

    Co-editor(s):
    Simon Deakin
    Publisher:
    Hart Publishing
    Published Forthcoming

    Book Chapters

    "From Rule of Law to Legal Singularity" (with Simon Deakin) in Simon Deakin and Christopher Markou (ed(s)), Is Law Computable? Critical Perspectives on Law + Artificial Intelligence (Hart Publishing), forthcoming

    Publisher:
    Hart Publishing
    ISBN 13:
    9781509937066
    Published Forthcoming

    "Ex Machina Lex: Exploring the Limit's of Law's Computability" (with Simon Deakin) in Simon Deakin and Christopher Markou (ed(s)), Is Law Computable? Critical Perspectives on Law + Artificial Intelligence (Hart Publishing), forthcoming

    Publisher:
    Hart Publishing
    ISBN 13:
    9781509937066
    Published Forthcoming

    "Capacitas Ex Machina: Are Algorithmic Assessments of Mental Capacity a "Red Line" or Benchmark for AI?" (with Lily Hands) in Simon Deakin and Christopher Markou (ed(s)), Is Law Computable? Critical Perspectives on Law + Artificial Intelligence (Hart Publishing), forthcoming

    Publisher:
    Hart Publishing
    ISBN 13:
    9781509937066
    Published Forthcoming

    "Governance by Numbers When Numbers Don’t Lie: The Cybernetic Path of the Law Towards Legal Singularity" in Christopher Markou (ed(s)), The Global Politics of Artificial Intelligence (CRC Press, 2019)

    Publisher:
    CRC Press
    Published Mar 2019

    "Nineteen Eighty-Four's Religion" (with James Crossley) in Christopher Markou (ed(s)), 1984 and Philosophy (Open Court, 2017)

    Publisher:
    Open Court
    Co-Author/s:
    James Crossley
    Published Dec 2017

    Reports

    Our Sexual Future With Robots: A Foundation for Responsible Robotics Report

    Co-Author/s:
    Noel Sharkey, Aimee van Wynsberghe, Scott Robins, Eleanor Hancock
    Body / Institution:
    Foundation for Responsible Robotics
    Published: Jul 2017

    The Future of Work

    Co-Author/s:
    Professor Simon Deakin
    Body / Institution:
    Jesus College, The University of Cambridge
    Published: Mar 2017