Legal Technology/Computational Law: Preconditions, Opportunities and Risks

Abstract

Although computers and digital technologies have existed for many decades, their capabilities today have changed dramatically. Current buzzwords like Big Data, artificial intelligence, robotics, and blockchain are shorthand for further leaps in development. The digitalisation of communication, which is a disruptive innovation, and the associated digital transformation of the economy, culture, politics, and public and private communication – indeed, probably of virtually every area of life – will cause dramatic social change. It is essential to prepare for the fact that digitalisation will also have a growing impact on the legal system. Reply by Virginia Dignum, Professor at the Department of Computing Science, Umea University.