About
May 13, 2021
Welcome to the first conference of the Online Workshop on the Computational Analysis of Law (OWCAL)!
In recent years, the digitization of legal texts and developments in statistics, computer science, and data analytics have opened entirely new methodological approaches to the study of law. These new methods build on traditional empirical legal studies by treating the information contained in the text of legal documents as data that can be subjected to quantitative analysis. The purpose of the OWCAL conference is to highlight the best and most innovative scholarship in computational legal studies and to build an intellectual community in support of this new field.
Given the global nature of the field, and continuing restrictions on travel, there is an unusual format for this conference. We will hold panels at three different times over the course of the day to accommodate participants around the world. We have two panels at each time slot and two papers for each panel, with the time being evenly divided between the two papers.
Below, you will see the schedule, with links to participant bios, draft papers, and Zoom links to each of the panels. Click on the Zoom button to join as a participant.
This is an exciting time for empirical legal studies. New tools and new data have created a host of opportunities for scholars interested in the study of law and legal institutions. The work presented here is at the cutting edge of a movement of researchers in a variety of fields exploring the boundaries of what can be learned about the law. I hope you enjoy.
Mike Livermore
Schedule
9 a.m. EDT
Verify the time of the conference in your time zone
Panel 1
Meeting ID: 950 0942 9828 / Passcode: 177479
- Elliott Ash (ETH Zürich), “Legal Language Modeling with Transformers”
- Susan Navarro Smelcer (Georgia State University College of Law), “Anticipating Regulatory Futures”
Panel 2
Meeting ID: 978 2830 7989 / Passcode: 514972
- Sofia Amaral-Garcia (Joint Research Center of the European Commission) and Samantha Bielen (Hasselt University), “Quantifying Legal Cultures”
- Peter Grajzl (Washington and Lee University) and Peter Murrell (University of Maryland), “How Law Develops: The Influence of Early English Caselaw and Legal Ideas on Caselaw Development During the Industrial Revolution”
Noon EDT
Verify the time of the conference in your time zone
Panel 1
Meeting ID: 981 6375 5766 / Passcode: 159449
- Justin Simard (Michigan State University College of Law), “Not Citing Slavery”
- Paul Eberstaller (University of Vienna Faculty of Law), "Strasbourg vs Luxembourg – How Two European Courts Decide Human Rights Cases"
Panel 2
Meeting ID: 977 8514 4153 / Passcode: 183954
- Jake Linford (Florida State University College of Law) and Kyra Nelson (BYU Law), “Trademark Fame and Corpus Linguistics”
- James Hicks (Berkeley Law), “Informative Patents: Predicting Invalidity With Patent Text”
9 p.m. EDT
Verify the time of the conference in your time zone
Panel 1
Meeting ID: 986 7435 4041 / Passcode: 591026
- Ben Nyblade (UCLA School of Law), “The Evolution of Arbitrary and Capricious Review”
- John Zeleznikow (Victoria University), “Using Artificial Intelligence to Provide User Centric Intelligent Negotiation Support”
Panel 2
Meeting ID: 987 4373 3550 / Passcode: 832302
- Julian Nyarko (Stanford Law School) and Jens Frankenreiter (Columbia Law School), “Hunting for Contracts on the Blockchain”
- Felix Chang (University of Cincinnati College of Law), “Doctrinal Implications of Computational Antitrust”
HOST
Michael Livermore
Edward F. Howrey Professor of Law