Conclusion: Legal Robotics
This chapter concludes the book by offering some preliminary reflections on the robotic aspects of personalized law. It begins by identifying some early experiments with the use of algorithms and machine learning in law, noting the immense potential they unveil. It confronts the “see” versus “scan” methodologies for individualized treatment—judges “looking people in the eye” versus algorithms analyzing the numerous personal aspects they are permitted to scan. The chapter highlights the critical roles of humans in algorithmic personalized law, primarily in setting the goals that the algorithms will be coded to optimize, in choosing the data by which algorithms are trained and people are subsequently screened, and in scrutinizing and repairing undesirable patterns. The chapter argues that the need to set specific goals and priorities for each law would transform the common law method of legal refinements, and would offer greater transparency for legislative accords. The book ends by pointing to areas of the law most ripe for phase-one personalized law.