Courses are presented bellow in the language in which they are taught. Students may contact professors to obtain detailed information about those courses.
CML 2179 FC 鈥 Access to Justice Practicum: Legal Knowledge Engineering
Fall Term | Professor Marina Pavlovi膰 (registration by selection)
This new Access to Justice Practicum: Legal Knowledge Engineering course will train lawyers for the future. In this 3-credit, project-based course, the students will conduct research, create resources, and deliver expert legal information and tools to non-expert users via technology. In collaboration with the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal and the BC Ministry of Justice, the course will train students in all aspects of legal knowledge engineering and legal project management. Knowledge engineering is the process of acquiring knowledge from an expert and transferring it to the expert system鈥檚 knowledge base. Legal knowledge engineering is a form of applied legal research where the legal expertise is transformed into rules in a legal expert system. There is a demonstrated need for people who experience legal problems of low to moderate value to diagnose problems, learn about their rights, seek context-specific information, problem-solve, and engage in self-advocacy. In this course, the students will address this access to justice gap by creating modules for Small Claims Solution Explorer, and interactive online self-help system that assists people to understand their rights, provides them with tailored information, and offers problem solving pathways.
CML 4514 鈥 L鈥檃nalyse de donn茅es juridiques
January Term | Professor Wolfgang Alschner
Ce cours familiarise les 茅tudiants avec les m茅thodes utilis茅s et les questions de recherche pos茅es par les chercheurs en sciences sociales et les start-ups de technologie juridique pour r茅cup茅rer, analyser et travailler avec des donn茅es juridiques. Les juges ou jur茅s sont-ils biais茅s? Quel est l'impact 茅conomique d'une r茅forme juridique? Comment pouvons-nous utiliser les technologies modernes, telles que l鈥檌ntelligence artificielle, pour pr茅voir les d茅cisions judiciaires ou reconna卯tre des structures communes dans des milliers de contrats? L鈥檕bjectif du cours est d鈥檃ppr茅cier la contribution d鈥榓utres disciplines pour mieux comprendre le droit et de transmettre les outils de base n茅cessaires pour 茅valuer et mener une recherche interdisciplinaire. Dans ce cours, nous allons (1) aborder les concepts fondamentaux de sciences empiriques et sociales pour analyser des donn茅es juridiques; 2) comprendre et 茅valuer les 茅tudes et les proc茅dures qui s'appuient sur les sciences sociales et les approches computationnelles pour l'analyse des documents juridiques; et (3) fournir les comp茅tences n茅cessaires pour effectuer des t芒ches de programmation de base afin de se lancer dans l'automatisation, l'analyse et la pr茅vision juridiques. Le cours vise les 茅tudiants et 茅tudiantes qui veulent travailler dans un contexte interdisciplinaire, que ce soit dans des bureaux d'茅tudes ou des 芦 legal tech start-ups 禄.
CML 1105 K 鈥 First Year Thematic Course: Legal Data Science
Winter Term | Professor Wolfgang Alschner
This course introduces students to the questions and techniques employed by social scientists and legal technology start-ups to retrieve, analyze and work with legal data. Are judges biased? What is the economic impact of a legal reform? How can we use modern technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to predict judicial decisions or to recognize patterns in thousands of contracts? The objective of the course is to appreciate the contribution of other disciplines in order to better understand the law and to transmit the basic tools needed to evaluate and conduct interdisciplinary research. It will (1) introduce fundamental concepts of empirical and social science for the analysis of legal documents, (2) enable students to understand and evaluate studies and procedures that rely on social science and computational approaches for the analysis of law and legal outcomes and (3) provide students with the skills to perform basic programming tasks in order to engage in legal search, automation, analysis and prediction. The course is aimed at students who want to work in an interdisciplinary context, whether in consulting firms, public policy, or legal tech start-ups.