Introduction to the special issue on Artificial Intelligence for Justice (AI4J)

Floris Bex, Henry Prakken, Tom van Engers, Bart Verheij

Artificial intelligence is currently a centre of attention of legal professionals. An abundance of startup companies explore the application of AI techniques in the domain of law, and there is even talk of artificially intelligent legal assistants disrupting the legal market space. Factors driving the increased attention for legal AI include:
  • Technological breakthroughs in machine learning, natural language processing, ubiquitous computing, data science, and argumentation technology;
  • The changing attitude towards technology in the legal domain;
  • The much increased availability of legal data on the internet;
  • The recent success of AI applications in the private and public domain;
  • The success of technology supporting access to law, legal empowerment, and transparency;
  • The increased need for norms embedded in technology (autonomous driving and warfare, big data analysis for crime fighting and counterterrorism).
Against this background, we organized a one-day workshop 'AI for Justice (AI4J)' on August 30, 2017, in The Hague, The Netherlands. The workshop was held in association with the 22nd European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2016). The workshop's theme connected to the ECAI 2016 special topic 'AI for human values'. Moreover, the workshop seemed particularly appropriate at this location given that The Hague is the residence of several international courts, such as the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Court of Criminal Justice and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Table of contents special issue at publisher's web site

Workshop web site: http://www.ai.rug.nl/~verheij/AI4J/

Manuscript (in PDF-format)

Reference:
Bex, F.J., Prakken, H., Van Engers, T., & Verheij, B. (2017). Introduction to the special issue on Artificial Intelligence for Justice (AI4J). Artificial Intelligence and Law 25 (1), 1-3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10506-017-9198-5.


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