It's certainly a deeply interesting interface between law and CS. Does anybody know how it can be explored further (in Europe if this makes a difference)? Recently graduated law school and I've been passionate for CS for quite a number of years and I'd love to combine the two?
CS50 for Lawyers
11–20 of 29 posts
Re: CS50 for Lawyers
#12This is not only much needed, but also will help shape how our legal system can adapt to new technologies. I had the privilege of sitting in on an Election Law class last year at YLS. The topic was gerrymandering, with a discussion of the legal arguments presented in Vieth v. Jubelirer. For non-lawyers, the plaintiffs arguments for what should constitute illegal gerrymandering is technically complex, using statistic…
I tried to find the curriculum structure for this course to check if it involves any of the topics you brought up, but could not do it.
If this course doesn't include relevant legal topics, do you know any other "programming for lawyers" course that you would recommend?
Re: CS50 for Lawyers
#13This looks neat! Unfortunately it doesn't look like there is "Law 101 for Software Developers", which I think would be an interesting course.
Re: CS50 for Lawyers
#14It's certainly a deeply interesting interface between law and CS. Does anybody know how it can be explored further (in Europe if this makes a difference)? Recently graduated law school and I've been passionate for CS for quite a number of years and I'd love to combine the two?
Look into smart contracts (Solidity), legaltech
Re: CS50 for Lawyers
#15This is not only much needed, but also will help shape how our legal system can adapt to new technologies. I had the privilege of sitting in on an Election Law class last year at YLS. The topic was gerrymandering, with a discussion of the legal arguments presented in Vieth v. Jubelirer. For non-lawyers, the plaintiffs arguments for what should constitute illegal gerrymandering is technically complex, using statistic…
I can get behind statistical and CS concepts being used to detect gerrymandered districts. There's a whole related field of anomaly detection.
My quackery sense tingles when I hear NP-completeness was mentioned in the argument. Do you have more info on the claimed relevance to gerrymandering?
Re: CS50 for Lawyers
#16This is not only much needed, but also will help shape how our legal system can adapt to new technologies. I had the privilege of sitting in on an Election Law class last year at YLS. The topic was gerrymandering, with a discussion of the legal arguments presented in Vieth v. Jubelirer. For non-lawyers, the plaintiffs arguments for what should constitute illegal gerrymandering is technically complex, using statistic…
I can get behind statistical and CS concepts being used to detect gerrymandered districts. There's a whole related field of anomaly detection. My quackery sense tingles when I hear NP-completeness was mentioned in the argument. Do you have more info on the claimed relevance to gerrymandering?
Of course, you can find the full explanation in the amicus brief: https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legal-work...
It is NP complete in determining to an absolute degree that a redistricting plan is excessively unfair, as the number of possibly districts grows exponentially. Demonstrating to a quantitative degree is more clear (eg stop drawing more maps after a few billion).
I highly recommend anyone interested read at least the summary of the above brief, but relevant details from page 4 are reproduced:
"With modern computer technology, it is now straightforward to (i) generate a large collection of redistricting plans that are representative of all possible plans that meet the State’s declared goals (e.g., compactness and contiguity); (ii) calculate the partisan outcome that would occur under each such plan, based upon actual precinct-level votes in one or more recent elections; (iii) display the distribution of the outcomes across these plans; and (iv) situate the State’s chosen plan along that continuum to reveal the degree to which that plan is an outlier. One can analyze outcomes for a statewide plan as a whole, or for an individual district within a plan. In this way, it is now straightforward to measure the quantitative degree to which a partisan gerrymander is excessive."
Re: CS50 for Lawyers
#17This is not only much needed, but also will help shape how our legal system can adapt to new technologies. I had the privilege of sitting in on an Election Law class last year at YLS. The topic was gerrymandering, with a discussion of the legal arguments presented in Vieth v. Jubelirer. For non-lawyers, the plaintiffs arguments for what should constitute illegal gerrymandering is technically complex, using statistic…
I'd argue all of that diving into technical details didn't end up mattering that much, either in Vieth itself or especially after Rucho v. Common Cause.
Re: CS50 for Lawyers
#18This is not only much needed, but also will help shape how our legal system can adapt to new technologies. I had the privilege of sitting in on an Election Law class last year at YLS. The topic was gerrymandering, with a discussion of the legal arguments presented in Vieth v. Jubelirer. For non-lawyers, the plaintiffs arguments for what should constitute illegal gerrymandering is technically complex, using statistic…
I tried to find the curriculum structure for this course to check if it involves any of the topics you brought up, but could not do it. If this course doesn't include relevant legal topics, do you know any other "programming for lawyers" course that you would recommend?
Here is the OpenCourseWare site for the material [0]. It includes all the lecture videos, slides, and assignments plus notes, subtitles, and transcripts for each.
Based on the lecture titles, statistical concepts may be obliquely touched on but probably not graphs or np-completeness.
Re: CS50 for Lawyers
#19I think a general law course for computer scientists and software engineers would also be useful.
Re: CS50 for Lawyers
#20I think a general law course for computer scientists and software engineers would also be useful.
Last year I read a book about IT laws in The Netherlands and ever since I read it I was able to apply that knowledge multiple times. Not necessarily the knowledge from the book itself, but also knowing when you don't know something.
This wasn't a course or anything, it was the interpretation of the law by an IT lawyer from NL so it took me just a few hours to read in total.