AUSCL Rules as Code Masterclass 6 - Critical Legal Coding
Welcome to the 6th in our series of Rules as Code Masterclasses.
This Masterclass features Dr Megan Ma from Stanford X - Exploring the new world of digital legislation + code and our AUSCL Tasmania Chapter Chair, Dr Jason Grant-Allen in conversation.
This Masterclass forms part of the Rules as Code Masterclass Series organised by the Australasian Society for Computers & Law Future Law Network. It explores the concept of "critical legal coding" with case studies from the cutting edge.
Abstract
There is no legal text without context. That is, legal information exists in a networked manner; legal documents interact with and reference one another across a temporally sensitive frame. Therefore, legal texts may be perceived as objects with natural language as the semiotic vessel. How these objects interact, how references are made, and how their histories interrelate must be accounted for. For legal text then to exist beyond natural language and as computer code, formal languages must necessarily be understood as linguistic mediums.
Formal languages are currently used in a manner that operates largely on logic. This is perhaps owed to a limited regard of the language as strictly syntactic and/or semantic; a focus on structure and outcomes as opposed to content and means. Analogous with learning a foreign language for the first time, code has only been acknowledged in a functional, mechanical sense. Metaphor, irony, fiction, and other complex uses of language have not been considered because code has yet to be perceived as worthy of interpretation. In defining, then, techniques of critical analysis, we will experiment with code as a non-natural but linguistic medium. In doing so, we test whether legal language can indeed extend outside of natural language to formal language.
So, how would such translation work? In this Masterclass, we consider how contextual, circumstantial dimensions of natural language play a significant role in the shaping of legal concepts. More importantly, we analyse how richer, more complex and nuanced dimensions of meaning in natural language may be represented and captured through computer code. In effect, we determine how to think and write in legal codex(t).
Meet the speakers
Dr Megan Ma is a CodeX Fellow at Stanford Law School. Her research considers the limits of legal expression, in particular how code could become the next legal language. Her work reflects on the frameworks of legal interpretation and its overlap in linguistics, logic, and aesthetic programming." Managing Editor of the MIT Computational Law Report and a Research Affiliate at Singapore Management University in their Centre for Computational Law. She received her PhD in Law at Sciences Po and was a lecturer there, having taught courses in Artificial Intelligence and Legal Reasoning, Legal Semantics, and Public Health Law and Policy. She has previously been a Visiting PhD at the University of Cambridge and Harvard Law School.
Dr Jason Grant-Allen is the AUSCL Chapter Chair for Tasmania and qualified Australian Barrister & Solicitor and New York Attorney & Counsellor-at-Law. He co-founded Stirling & Rose Digital Law in 2022, a boutique incorporated legal practice where his practice focuses on the application of emergent technologies focusing on blockchain and DLT including law of money (cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, CBDC), digital assets (“tokenised” financial/real assets, cryptoassets, NFTs), and governance (including capacity building for regulators facing market innovations and/or deploying new technologies for service delivery).
Prior to co-founding Stirling & Rose, Jason's academic research focused on the interface of legal systems and emergent technology for which he received competitive funding from global institutions including the Cambridge Australia Trust, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, UK Economic and Social Research Council, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Australian Government.
Moderator
Natalia Crnomarkovic is a Distinguished Follow at the Centre for Legal Innovation, and digital transformation leader and seasoned technology lawyer. Natalia collaborates with lawyers and cross-disciplinary professionals to design and deliver legal service delivery solutions.
Natalia has held senior leadership roles in top-tier law firms including APAC Law Innovation Hub. She also has experience as Technology Leader at EY Law as well as in senior in-house legal roles, from start-up to multi-national. Natalia is the Future Law Network Leader with the Australasian Society for Computers & Law (AUSCL) and has been leading conversations with global reach on "Rules as Code" and next generation contracting. She is the recipient of multiple awards including the Diligent 2021 Modern Governance 100 Global Award in the Digital Transformation Innovator category and was awarded the EY Global AI Award in 2018 for the innovative application of machine learning to support regulatory compliance.