Computational Legal Studies 2022
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
The rise of statistical learning methods in academia has permeated law, triggering what has been called a “computational turn” in legal scholarship. In this emerging field, novel techniques such as network analytics and natural language processing are being applied to uncover, and quantify, previously hidden insights about the law. However, the novelty of the computational legal method and its implications mean that traditional venues for discussing and publishing such work remain scarce.
Against this backdrop, the SMU Centre for Computational Law, in collaboration with law.mit.edu, will organise an academic conference from 2 – 4 March, 2022 to gather leading scholars and thinkers in the field. Keynote speakers for this event include Professors Daniel Katz, Kevin Ashley, Arthur Dyevre and Charlotte Alexander.
Additionally, papers presented at the conference will be considered for publication in a Special Release of the MIT Computational Law Report dedicated to this symposium, and will be reviewed following the Report’s standard processes.
Conference Theme
“Past, Present, and Future” invites scholars to introspect on where the field is now, and where we may (and should) be headed. We invite submissions of abstracts on all aspects of computational legal studies, including but not limited to and in no order of preference:
- Machine learning and law
- Legal outcome prediction
- Legal text analytics, information extraction, summarization, etc
- Legal network analytics
- Legal complexity science
- Legal data visualization
- Causal inference in law
- Empirical and statistical legal studies
- Modelling legal rules and systems
- Ethics, fairness, and legality concerns of computational legal studies
- Position and review papers
- Resources for computational legal studies, such as code libraries and notebooks
- Software applications and demos
This theme is an inspirational prompt and not a strict requirement. Abstracts may describe either completed (including published) or ongoing work. We welcome submissions from scholars at all career stages.
Conference Arrangements
Scholars whose abstracts are accepted will be asked to submit a draft manuscript 2 weeks before the conference date. Scholars will have the option of presenting at the conference either remotely or, circumstances permitting, physically in Singapore. Presenters are expected to meet their own travel and accommodation costs, if any.
