Utilising AI in the legal assistance sector—Testing a role for legal information institutes

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in law has again become of great interest to lawyers and government. Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) have played a significant role in the provision of legal information via the web. The concept of ‘free access to law’ is not static, and the evolution of its principles now requires a response from providers of free access to legal information (‘a LII response’) to this renewed prominence of AI. This should include improving and expanding free access to legal advice. This paper proposes, and proposes to test, one approach that LIIs might take in the use of AI (specifically, ‘decision support’ or ‘intelligent assistance’ (IA) technologies), an approach that leverages the very large legal information assets that some LIIs have built over the past two decades. This approach focuses on how LIIs can assist providers of free legal advice (the ‘legal assistance sector’) to serve their clients. We consider the constraints that the requirement of ‘free’ imposes (on both the legal assistance sector and on LIIs), including on what types of free legal advice systems are sustainable, and what roles LIIs may realistically play in the development of such a ‘commons of free legal advice’. We suggest guidelines for development of such systems. The AI-related services and tools that the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) is providing (the ‘DataLex’ platform), and how they could be used to achieve these goals, are outlined.     

Rewriting the future? Biomedical advances and legal dilemmas

Developments in medical science have sparked public debate about the legal and ethical implications of new technologies. Within these debates a number of distinct discourses are evident, including discourses about the positive and negative implications of technological advances, the influence of globalisation on regulatory choice, and the challenges of articulating common values in a pluralistic society. This article argues that an understanding of these discourses is an essential part of understanding the nature of contemporary regulatory dilemmas.     

mHealth and data protection – the letter and the spirit of consent legal requirements

In this article, the role of consent is discussed in the framework of fundamental rights and in the context of mobile health technologies (mHealth), such as smart phones, mobile phones or tablet/palm-held computing devices to provide healthcare. The authors surmise how, in practice, although there will be more emphasis on informed consent formally, there will be less space for genuine individual consent. This betrays a focus more on the letter of consent rules in data protection than their spirit. This risks reducing consent to a tick box operation in a manner analogous to consumer transactions, something manifestly unsuitable for consent, even if only in informational terms, during medical procedures.     

Fitting stories into professional legal education—the missing ingredient

Abstract

THIS ARTICLE considers the absence of story‐telling from legal education in England and Wales. This important aspect of persuasion is quite thoroughly considered in the academic and professional legal literature of the USA and Australia, for example, but has received very little attention in England, specifically when one looks at professional legal education and training. Currently, the training programme for law graduates (who will qualify as barristers1) devotes considerable time to training in advocacy skills and often in case preparation as well but typically little or no time to the concept of story‐telling or story‐framing. These training programmes do not seek to inform our lawyers‐in‐waiting about the ways in which fact‐finders make decisions.

If one actively seeks information and learned comment on the topic of story‐telling, the legal trainer in England is forced to turn elsewhere, usually to the USA. Undoubtedly, research is ongoing in England on the topic of juror decision‐making but at present this tends to be the exclusive province of psychologists. This article will suggest that this topic is a vital missing ingredient in professional legal training in England and that space must be made for its inclusion in such training programmes. Consideration will be given to the most appropriate ways to facilitate this inclusion.

Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it.2     

The rise and fall of the legal expert system†

Those very few of us who were critical of the rise of legal expert systems in the early 1980s probably wonder, in idle moments, whether there is a possibility of rejuvenation of an approach which was once multi-various and is now obscure and esoteric. Is it possible that after rising and falling, that legal expert system research programme could rise again? What were the conditions which gave impetus to the field and could they be repeated? In this article I want to return, with a personal viewpoint, on the rise of expert systems and why - despite their failure - the appeal of commoditising legal expertise continues to allure the unwary.     

State power and diffusion processes in the ratification of global environmental treaties, 1981–2008

There have been many explanations for why countries ratify global environmental treaties. They range from neorealist theory, to hegemony theory, world society theory, and network embeddedness theory. Drawing on hegemonic transition theory, this paper provides evidence that prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, strong and weak countries ratified a treaty if the USA or the USSR ratified the treaty first. After the fall of the Soviet Union, countries’ proximity to world society institutions increased the likelihood of ratifying a treaty, and only weaker countries emulated the ratifications of the USA and Russia. However, weaker countries also emulated economic, religious, and language peers, diplomatic ties, and neighbors as well. In contrast, more powerful countries ratified treaties more independently. We studied the ratifications of eight universal environmental treaties by 166 countries between 1981 and 2008 and showed that as the geopolitical context changed, the diffusion process changed. The paper argues that the hegemonic transition which took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s was an enabling event that helped to explain the new roles that major powers assumed in the 1990s and 2000s and opened the door to the ascendency of global institutions and broader participation in the environmental regime.     

Computer services association — legal affairs group

At a time when the importance and the relevance of these legal issues is increasingly being recognised by the computer services industry, the Legal Affairs Group is committed both to providing a forum for discussion amongst lawyers working within the industry, and to publicising matters of interest on a wider scale.Watch this space.     

The impact of “empirical facts” on legal scholarship and legal research training

Lawyers have traditionally viewed law as a closed system, and doctrinal research has been the research methodology used most widely in the profession. This reflects traditional concepts of legal reasoning. There is a wealth of reliable and valid social science data available to lawyers and judges. Judges in fact often refer to general facts about the world, society, institutions and human behaviour (“empirical facts”). Legal education needs to prepare our students for this broader legal context. This paper examines how “empirical facts” are used in Australian and other common law courts. Specifically, the paper argues that there is a need for enhanced training in non-doctrinal research methodologies across the law school curriculum. This should encompass a broad introduction to social science methods, with more attention being paid to a cross-section of methodologies such as content analysis, comparative law and surveys that are best applied to law.     

‘Shut up and bill’: workplace bullying challenges for the legal profession

Competition, work intensification and requirements for efficiency are some of the hallmarks of the modern work environment. Pressures in such settings can result in stress caused by long work hours, a lack of work–life balance and interpersonal conflict. The legal profession is prone to negative impacts due to its highly competitive environment. This, coupled with established hierarchical structures, significant power imbalances and pressure to measure work input rather than output (billable hours), can create ‘toxic’ settings. This paper reports the findings of a study of dignity and respect in the legal profession. Results indicate that many of the issues arise due to negative workplace cultures brought about and perpetuated by work practices and the leadership of the firm. Often the prevailing culture of intense competition, and a win-at-all-costs mentality, has negative repercussions for the security and standing of individuals. Those with position and power use work practices such as billable hours to push others to perform at extraordinary levels, in turn adversely affecting their well-being, quality of work life and tenure in the organisation or profession. The way forward would require a multi-pronged approach and cooperation and collaboration by the relevant stakeholders: regulators, professional associations, institutions and individuals.     

Changing institutional culture in the wake of clerical abuse – the essentials of restorative and legal regulation

The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse completed its final report in December 2017 after five years of hearings. The Royal Commission was the culmination of pressure from a series of public inquiries about institutional sexual abuse and sustained advocacy from victims and survivor support groups. The Commission made recommendations designed to change institutional leadership, governance and culture. The challenge is to have that change embedded in institutional culture. This paper considers how this might be done in a specific institution, the Catholic Church given that more than two-thirds of reported abuse in faith-based institutions occurred within its ranks. Regulatory theory suggests effective regulation must be responsive to past institutional behaviour. In the case of the Church, the task is profound given its strong self-protective culture which has long shielded abusers. The form of regulation must provide a balance where criminal sanctions loom large in the background while redress processes proceed in the foreground to repair both the harm suffered by survivors and renew Church culture.     

Fire — Negligence — and the Law

The current position with regard to liability in negligence in the fire context is presented with reference to a number of important cases.