Law + Technology: Computational Law & Evolutionary Design

Course Objective

Lawyers are trained to provide legal answers to the issues arising in
society. They are not prepared to explore if architectural (i.e.,
technical) solutions could prove more effective, whether designed on
their own or combined with legal rules and standards. Also, lawyers are
typically not exposed to evolutionary theories applied to technical
fields — they often regulate without fully considering technological
dynamics.

This course aims to remedy this shortcoming. The ambition is for
students to:

- become augmented lawyers, i.e., lawyers that can use legal rules
and/or technical solutions to provide answers to the issues they are
facing;

- become evolutionary lawyers, i.e., lawyers that anticipate the impact
of regulation on technological survival and evolution;

- acquire sufficient knowledge of computational thinking to be able to
work efficiently with computer scientists in the years to come, whether
to create better legal rules and better enforce the law (public side),
better represent their clients’ interests (private side), or become
better researchers (university side).

Course Content

During the first week of this course, students will be introduced to
“law + technology.” They will explore the differences with the classical
“law & technology” approach they have been exposed to during their
studies.

During the second week of this course, students will put their “law +
technology” knowledge into practice. They will design a “law +
technology” solution in groups and with the assistance of their
professor.

During the third week of this course, students will explore the
potential and limits of their “law + technology” solution from a
complexity science / evolutionary perspective. They will record a video
and write a short paper summarizing their findings.

Additional Information Teaching Methods

Students will be given theoretical and practical lectures. The
short-term objective of these lectures is to introduce students to a new
way of thinking about the law and provide them with concrete tools they
will use to develop their “law + technology” solution. The long-term
objective of these lectures is to create augmented lawyers that can
leverage the regulatory power of technology during their careers.

Students will also create a “law + technology” solution. They will need
to apply the knowledge acquired during the lectures and prove creative
(reaching the highest level of the Bloom taxonomy). Last, students will
criticize their creations and their classmates’ creations. The objective
is to discuss the potential and limits of their solutions and, for the
best ones, make them ready for venture capitalists.

Method of Assessment

Students (pair of two) will record a 4-minute video in which they will
introduce their “law + technology” solution.

Students (pairs of two) will hand in a written assignment in which they
explain (1) the problem tackled by their “law + technology” solution,
(2) the methodology they have used, (3) explore the results from an
evolutionary perspective, and (4) discuss future steps.

Literature

The literature will be made available through Canvas

Additional Information Target Audience

All master students. Computer scientists are also welcome!

Recommended background knowledge

There is no recommended background knowledge. In fact, you are
encouraged not to bring your background knowledge to this course.