Overview
This unit is designed for students who want to develop knowledge and skills in the practice of law using intelligent machines. Intelligent machines are set to dramatically reshape Australian legal practice. This unit incoporates theory, research and the practical application of e-lawyering. Students will examine software systems that empower consumers including lawyerless internet-based systems that vend interactive documents and intelligent legal assistance. Intelligent systems designed for lawyers to produce inexpensive transactional outcomes will be considered. The challenges, threats, opportunities and ethical considerations associated with these developments will be explored. Consideration will also be given as to how governments, pro bono and community legal centers may directly benefit from automation. Through engagement with legal knowledge engineering, students will develop a legal App for the benefit of the community. No programming experience or other technical knowledge is required.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Prerequisites: LAWS11057, LAWS11059, LAWS11061, LAWS11062, LAWS11063, LAWS11064, LAWS11060, (LAWS11065 or LAWS12055)
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2020
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
- Discuss and critique the technologies lawyers and others will use in 21st century.
- Identify aspects of legal work and new forms of service delivery that are possible through the use of intelligent machines.
- Classify what ethical and regulatory issues are presented by lawyering using intelligent machines.
- Construct a software application that can model legal knowledge and reasoning to perform useful legal work for non lawyers.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 80% | ||||
| 2 - Group Work - 20% | ||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | ||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | ||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | ||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | ||||
| 5 - Team Work | ||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | ||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | ||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 80% | ||||||||||
| 2 - Group Work - 20% | ||||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Australian Guide to Legal Citation, 4th ed
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
v.lambropoulos@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Chapter
No Reading
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Reading:
Nachshon Goltz & Giulia Dondoli, ‘A Note on Science, Legal Research and Artificial Intelligence’ (2019) 28(3) Information & Communication Technology Law 239.
Nachshon Goltz & Joel Gilmore, ‘The Work of Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence’ (March–April 2018) Journal of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & Law 1(2) 27.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
No Reading
Events and Submissions/Topic
Design a chatbot based on legislation
Module/Topic
Chapter
No Reading
Events and Submissions/Topic
Students to present their chatbot design and receive feedback
Module/Topic
Chapter
Reading:
Altman, Weil, Flesh, Chief Legal Officer Survey (2018), <http://www.altmanweil.com/dir_docs/resource/154F22DC-E519-4CE2-991D-492A0448C74F_document.pdf>
Events and Submissions/Topic
Submit final chatbot design
Module/Topic
Chapter
No Reading
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Explaining the prototype of legal application assignment
Chapter
No Reading
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Reading:
Nachshon Goltz et al., ‘Rethinking Global Regulation, World’s Law Meets Artificial Intelligence’ (2019) Information & Communication Technology Law 28(1)
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Assignment progress
Chapter
No Reading
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Guest Speaker: Mr. Addison Cameron-Huff
Chapter
No Reading
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Assignment progress
Chapter
No Reading
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
In this class we will look at the use of technology in facilitating and enhancing access to justice. Special attention will be given to the CQCLC project done with the assistance of the chatbot Josef Legal - https://www.cqclc.org.au/chatbot/
Chapter
TBD
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
No Reading
Events and Submissions/Topic
final project - prototype of legal application due
Practical Assessment - Part I - chatbot (20%); Part II - prototype legal application (60%) Due: Week 12 Monday (1 June 2020) 11:45 pm AEST
Group Work Due: Week 12 Monday (1 June 2020) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
No Reading
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
No Reading
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Practical Assessment
Part 1
Students are expected to work in groups to create the following:
A chatbot design of legislation for the benefit of non-lawyers (20%) – due end of week 5.
Outcomes
Apply your critical and in-depth understanding, to create a design that will answer a lay persons’ in depth questions.
This is one of the most challenging tasks – you should have enough grasp of the content in order to teach what you have learned.
Learning Outcomes
1.Identify aspects of legal work and new forms of service delivery that are possible through the use of intelligent machines.
2.Construct a software application that can model legal knowledge and reasoning to perform useful legal work for non-lawyers.
Overview
Choose a piece of legislation. Using this legislation, create a flowchart diagram (design for a chatbot). Your chatbot design will answer questions regarding this legislation. Consider how a lay-person would converse with a chat-bot in regarding this legislation.
The chatbot is expected to provide a diagrammatic work-flow of a number of potential conversations through a question and answer approach.
You should also submit a 500-word reflection describing the challenges you encountered, lessons learned and future recommendations.
Your performance will be mainly evaluated based on the depth and efficiency of your chatbot design.
Instructions
1.Choose a piece of legislation (all topics and jurisdictions are allowed). You do not need to include the entire Act/regulation – simply choose a section or set of sections dealing with a specific topic. Send your chosen legislation to the lecturer for approval.
2.Create a set of questions, and potential answers for this legislation.
3.Create a flowchart of your design. The same questions may be answered by the same answer while some answers may yield follow up questions and answers.
4.Write a 500-word explanation of the main elements in your design.
Part 2
A prototype for a legal application including market research (60%) – due end of week 11;
Student groups will work in consultation to produce:
- A design for a technological solution to a legal issue.
- A “whitepaper” explaining the nature of the challenge, the solution proposed, and an explanation of why the group designed the solution in that way.
- A ten minute pitch.
You have two options:
(i)Choose your own challenge; or
(ii)Solve the following challenge:
The government is interested in creating an online service that will provide real-time keyword-based email alerts on most of the official documents involved in the legislative process at the Commonwealth and State level in Australia.
The goal is to have a dynamic, data driven interface that allows the user to follow the legislative process of whatever he/she is interested in, including real-time data, predictions, special features and more. Kind of one stop dynamic solution for the legislative process. The user can follow the process with regard to a specific bill, or follow multiple processes with regard to specific topic. Try to think through the potential user’s eyes – what would be his/her dream solution.
It must be graphic, friendly and intuitive. Should reflect the users’ needs. Should be forward thinking – not only what the user needs, what he will want and even do not know about it (e.g., Ford – ‘faster horses’). Keep it simple. Be innovative. While we want you to stretch your design, ask whether it may be technically possible.
Week 12 Monday (1 June 2020) 11:45 pm AEST
Part 1 is due on Week 5 and Part 2 is due on week 12
Review/Exam Week Monday (8 June 2020)
| STANDARDS | |||||
| Assessment Criteria | High Distinction (HD) | Distinction (D) | Credit (C) | Pass (P) | Fail (N) |
| Project definition and scope 20% marks | Clear and comprehensive definition of a substantial and significant project topic (including statement of purpose and relevance) and scope (including context, boundaries and assumptions). | Clear and complete definition of substantial project topic (including statement of purpose and relevance) and scope (including context, boundaries and assumptions). | Informed definition of substantial project topic (including statement of purpose and relevance) and scope (including context, boundaries and assumptions). | Adequate definition of sufficient project topic and scope. Ambiguity and possible scope creep exist. Some constraints defined. | Poor or incomplete definition of project topic and scope. Much ambiguity and possible scope creep. Constraints not defined. |
| Presentation 20% marks | Excellent use of graphics (extensive and relevant use of illustrations, flow charts, process diagrams) to convey ideas. | Very good use of graphics (use of relevant illustrations, flow charts, process diagrams) to convey ideas. | Good use of graphics (use of relevant illustrations, flow charts, process diagrams) to convey ideas. | Use of graphics (some use of illustrations, flow charts, process diagrams etc) to convey ideas. | Poor or no use of graphics (illustrations, flow charts, process diagrams etc) to convey ideas. |
| Synthesis 20% marks | Project components have been persuasively brought together logically and creatively: logical arguments justify and innovative ideas guide the statements and plans. The submission includes an evaluation of highly pertinent alternative approaches. | Project components have been brought together logically and creatively: logical arguments justify and innovative ideas guide the statements and plans. The submission includes an evaluation of alternative approaches. | Logical arguments used to justify statements and plans.The approach is systematic and includes an evaluation of alternative approaches | Arguments used to justify statements and plans.The approach is methodical and includes some consideration of alternative approaches. | Minimal use of tools research and theory, to justify statements and plans.The approach is unsystematic and alternative approaches are not considered. |
- Discuss and critique the technologies lawyers and others will use in 21st century.
- Identify aspects of legal work and new forms of service delivery that are possible through the use of intelligent machines.
- Classify what ethical and regulatory issues are presented by lawyering using intelligent machines.
- Construct a software application that can model legal knowledge and reasoning to perform useful legal work for non lawyers.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Ethical practice
2 Group Work
Students are expected to regularly participate in subject zoom sessions and any online discussion forums.
Learning Outcomes
1. Discuss and critique the technologies lawyers and others will use in the 21st century.
2. Classify what ethical and regulatory issues are presented by lawyering using intelligent machines.
Week 12 Monday (1 June 2020) 11:45 pm AEST
Exam Week Monday (15 June 2020)
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- Discuss and critique the technologies lawyers and others will use in 21st century.
- Identify aspects of legal work and new forms of service delivery that are possible through the use of intelligent machines.
- Classify what ethical and regulatory issues are presented by lawyering using intelligent machines.
- Construct a software application that can model legal knowledge and reasoning to perform useful legal work for non lawyers.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Team Work
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
