What does computable law mean for the autonomy, authority, and legitimacy of the legal system? Are we witnessing a shift from Rule of Law to a new Rule of Technology? Should we even build these things in the first place?

This unique volume collects original papers by a group of leading international scholars to address some of the fascinating questions raised by the encroachment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into more aspects of legal process, administration, and culture. Weighing near-term benefits against the longer-term, and potentially path-dependent, implications of replacing human legal authority with computational systems, this volume pushes back against the more uncritical accounts of AI in law and the eagerness of scholars, governments, and LegalTech developers, to overlook the more fundamental - and perhaps ‘bigger picture’ - ramifications of computable law.

With contributions by Simon Deakin, Christopher Markou, Mireille Hildebrandt, Roger Brownsword, Sylvie Delacroix, Lyria Bennet Moses, Ryan Abbott, Jennifer Cobbe, Lily Hands, John Morison, Alex Sarch, and Dilan Thampapillai, as well as a foreword from Frank Pasquale.

If you have any interest in artificial intelligence (AI), especially if it’s coupled with a desire to learn more about how developments in AI are related to law and legal technology, then this collection of papers has been compiled just for you … As AI continues to seep into many areas of legal practice, this is an important collection of critical papers relevant not just for law libraries but for any library collection hoping to inform readers about ongoing developments in AI and society. -- F Tim Knight, Osgoode Hall Law School Library * Canadian Law Library Review *

Simon Deakin is Professor of Law and Fellow of Peterhouse and Christopher Markou is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and Affiliated Lecturer, both at the University of Cambridge.