Review of 'Artificial Legal Intelligence'

Abstract:     
Artificial Legal Intelligence, by Pamela Gray, presents a thought-provoking approach to both computational models of legal reasoning and the use of evolutionary thinking about the law. Drawing on a prodigious amount of research, the book looks beyond the rather technical approach common in the field and attempts to place artificial legal intelligence within the broad structure of legal history. This paper first summarizes the book's vision of a computerized artificial legal intelligence, a vision of developments in both technology and legal history. The paper discusses how this fits with trends in both artificial intelligence and legal theory. The paper further discusses how the book, by freeing itself from present technological constraints, provides a wider vision than many more technical discussions of artificial intelligence. In particular, its view of the evolution of law brings in social and cultural factors often ignored by discussions of legal reasoning. The last part of this paper considers, more broadly, how evolutionary analysis can provide a fruitful method for analyzing legal reasoning.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 18

Keywords: artificial intelligence, legal reasoning, bda

Accepted Paper Series