In the data society where big data, and the knowledge extracted from them, are fundamental elements for taking correct decisions, the competence to manage data, data analytics tools, artificial intelligence algorithm, visualization communication and human rights in interdisciplinary way is becoming a pillar for the future generations of researchers, legal operators, citizens. Additionally, the recent proposal of an AI Regulation by EU institutions introduces important concepts like transparency of the algorithms, explicability of the automatic decisions, human oversight using adequate interfaces, dataset validation to detect cognitive biased and to avoid the infringement of the European fundamental rights. All these concepts need to be effectively guaranteed by an interdisciplinary high level of competences in the legal domain and in the understanding of technical phenomena.
In the EduComp 2.1 we found two important competences related to this topic, Information and data literacy and Problem solving, that should be more and more integrated in the high-level courses of our universities especially in the School of Law.
The capacity to use data analytics and artificial intelligence is, nowadays, fundamental for the next generation of citizens but in particular for the lawyers that should very soon interact with such reality under a twofold point of view:
1. as practitioners while using LegalTech tools in a pro-active way to reach the quality of the profession’s services;
2. to understand the evolution of the society and so to apply the correct legal regulation with a problem-solving approach.
We intend to organize an articulated module named “Data science for Lawyers and Legal Design” to develop these competences in three main levels of the education: LLM students, PhD candidates, practitioners. Similar courses already exist but they are too much oriented to data science not applied to the legal domain and, specifically, legal practitioners.
The Legal Tech market is growing fast and lawyers must use decision-support systems for improving the effectiveness of their work (e.g., automatic drafting of contracts, checking due diligence, smart contracts, visual dashboards of the prediction of the outcome of a case). In this scenario, legal experts and advanced software should cooperate in order to avoid cognitive prejudices (e.g., discrimination bias), to respect the legal principles (e.g., just trial), to be competitive in an international dimension (e.g., legal pluralism as an important factor in the European Legislation). In particular the European framework that is regulating the introduction of the Artificial Intelligence in the society requires to design high risk applications using specific legal principles like transparency, risk analysis, accountability, non-discrimination, human oversight, legal-by-design.
Additionally, the COVID-19 situation demonstrates to the society how much it is important to understand the data and its visualization for making important decisions at the political level, in the industrial sectors and in the day-by-day life for acting with a solid digital citizenship.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
Jean Monnet Module Programme
Title: LEGAL DESIGN AND DATA SCIENCE FOR EXPLICABLE AI IN LEGAL DOMAIN
Acronym: LEDS 4 XAIL
Duration: 1/10/2022-30/9/2025
