Adopting a cautious and yet optimistic view of an uncertain legal future, The Legal Singularity presents a coherent account of the radically positive impact artificial intelligence may have in the coming decades on law and legal institutions.
Law today is incomplete, inaccessible, unclear, underdeveloped, and often perplexing to those whom it affects. In The Legal Singularity, Abdi Aidid and Benjamin Alarie argue that the proliferation of artificial intelligence-enabled technology - and specifically the advent of legal prediction - is on the verge of radically reconfiguring the law, our institutions, and our society for the better.
Revealing the ways in which our legal institutions underperform and are expensive to administer, the book highlights the negative social consequences associated with our legal status quo. Given the infirmities of the current state of the law and our legal institutions, the silver lining is that there is ample room for improvement. With concerted action, technology can help us to ameliorate the law and our legal institutions. Inspired in part by the concept of the 'technological singularity', The Legal Singularity presents a future state in which technology facilitates the functional ""completeness"" of law, where the law is at once extraordinarily more complex in its specification than it is today, and yet operationally vastly more knowable, fairer, and clearer for its subjects. Aidid and Alarie describe the changes that will culminate in the legal singularity and explore the implications for the law and its institutions.
By:
Abdi Aidid,
Benjamin Alarie
Imprint: University of Toronto Press
Country of Publication: Canada
Dimensions:
Height: 235mm,
Width: 159mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 420g
ISBN: 9781487529413
ISBN 10: 1487529414
Pages: 226
Publication Date: 01 August 2023
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
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
Abdi Aidid is a graduate of Yale Law School and assistant professor of law at the University of Toronto. Benjamin Alarie holds the Osler Chair in Business Law at the University of Toronto and is an affiliated faculty member at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
Reviews for The Legal Singularity: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Law Radically Better
"""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"
- Short-listed for 2023 Donner Prize Awarded by The Donner Prize 2024 (Canada)
- Winner of The 2024 PROSE Award in Legal Studies and Criminology Awarded by the Association of American Publishers 2024 (United States)
