AI, Law and Legal Institutions
About
This program of research, dissemination and engagement aims to build capacity in the legal profession (and in law and regulation more broadly) to respond to the challenges of rapid sociotechnical change, both now and into the future. It works to broadly translate and develop research findings into transformative outcomes for AI in the law.
It is divided into three major subthemes:
- AI, Courts and Judging
- AI, Education and the Future of Legal Practice
- AI and Access to Justice
Much of the prior work in this theme has been categorised under the broad banner of CAIDE's AI Policy and Regulation Hub, which aims to collate our workshops, masterclasses, roundtables and academic work on helping ensure policy and regulation helps develop responsible AI technology.
AI, Courts and Judging
In a world where courts and judges must balance the potential for more efficient operations and greater access to justice with core normative values of fairness, transparency and accountability, how might AI impact the courts and adjudication?
Some of our work in this subtheme is included below:
Pursuit Article and Blog Post - AI and the Ordinary Person
CAIDE Director Jeannie Paterson and CAIDE RA Andrew Lim wrote 'The law relies on being precise. AI is disrupting that' for Pursuit, the University's research news website, investigating the use of generative AI by some courts in interpreting the ordinary meaning of words as an alternative to dictionaries. This was based on Andrew's broader CAIDE Blog post, 'Chatbot of the Common People: Can AI stand in for the ordinary layperson?', which additionally considered the use of generative AI by other courts in determining what constitutes common knowledge and some of the wider normative concerns at play.
2026 Judicial Roundtable with the National University of Singapore
We are looking forward to organising a judges' roundtable with the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2026, focussing on a comparative analysis of uses of generative AI in adjudication and related court processes, especially as these relate to questions at the very heart of the nature of the adjudicative function. More details will be forthcoming later in the year.
Artificial Intelligence in Victoria’s Courts and Tribunals
As part of the Victorian Law Reform Commission's inquiry into Artificial Intelligence in Victoria’s Courts and Tribunals, CAIDE worked with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S), Melbourne Law School and the Commission to hold an event responding to the inquiry and discussing some of its concerns. You can download the Consultation Paper via the button below.
AI, Education and the Future of Legal Practice
With increasing interest in the use of AI in various aspects of legal practice, how should AI impact the day-to-day practice of law and the process of legal education itself?
Some of our work in this subtheme is included below:
Article - Evolution of Legal Knowledge Work
CAIDE Director Jeannie Paterson co-authored 'The Evolution of Legal Knowledge Work in an Age of Brilliant(?) Technologies: From Robo-Lawyer to Digital Law Clerk' (2025) 6 Australian National University Journal of Law & Technology 51, alongside fellow Melbourne Law School Professor Julian Webb. This article explores how generative AI could affect legal knowledge work and possibly transform the legal function more broadly.
LawTech Snapshots
Since early 2025, we have been releasing LawTech Snapshot reports, summarising uses of and policy towards generative AI in the law. We intend to continue releasing these reports and updating this resource on a regular basis for practitioners and researchers.
AI and Access to Justice
How can both AI's risks and opportunities be harnessed in ways that alleviate rather than deepen existing concerns about access to justice across law in general?
Some of our work in this subtheme is included below:
Article - Generative AI in Small Value Consumer Disputes
CAIDE Director Prof Jeannie Paterson co-authored 'Generative AI in Small Value Consumer Disputes: Reviving Not Resolving Challenges of Design and Governance in Online Dispute Resolution' (2025) 48(4) University of New South Wales Law Journal 1257, alongside RMIT Lecturer (and former CAIDE PhD student) Dr Vivi Tan and Melbourne Law School Professor Julian Webb. It examined the benefits and risks of using generative AI in closing the access to justice gap in the context of small value consumer claims, and whether its potential to overcome the information asymmetries characterising many consumer disputes could outweigh the inherent risk of hallucinations.
AI Policy and Regulation Hub
How can policy and regulatory tools be used to develop responsible AI technology by connecting emerging technology and the law?
Some of our work in the hub is included below:
Responsible AI Workshops and Masterclasses
CAIDE runs both general and bespoke workshops and masterclasses on demystifying AI, Ethics, Policy and Regulation. We have worked with AVPN to offer bespoke ‘train the trainer’ workshops for not-for-profit enterprises in Australia and New Zealand on AI literacy, with a focus on responsible (fair and safe) generative AI.
This work has extended overseas via the DFAT Cyber and Critical Technology Cooperation Program, including both working across government, academia and the legal profession in Vietnam in 2023 and welcoming a delegation
from the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice in June 2024, who participated in one of our Responsible AI Masterclasses.
If you think a CAIDE professional masterclass could be beneficial to you, your team or your clients, send us an email and get in touch.
Learn about Responsible AI Masterclasses and Workshops
AI Policy Forums: Issue Papers and Videos
CAIDE has organised both policy forums and other events featuring key input from those working at or near the intersections of emerging technology and the law. We have recently worked to run multiple roundtable policy forums, bringing together expert panels from law, policy, economics, technology and more to deal with specific and nuanced areas of modern AI policy, resulting in corresponding policy papers being produced to 'demystify' that area of AI policy. Additionally, a series of videos was produced, featuring experts, academics and practitioners breaking down the major issues of debate in each policy topic.
Watch the Videos then Read and Download the Issue Papers
Regulation in Australia
CAIDE Director Prof Jeannie Paterson recently had a book chapter published on ‘Regulating Generative AI in Australia: Challenges of Regulatory Design and Regulator Capacity’ as part of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of the Foundations and Regulation of Generative AI.
This considers Australia’s challenges in designing guardrails and governance frameworks without stifling social and economic opportunities: whether fitting into the existing legal regime, avoiding complexity or ensuring compatibility with international standards, and thoroughly explores possible regulatory approaches.
Dataset Markets and AI Copyright
CAIDE Research Collaborator Dr Jake Goldenfein wrote 'Data or content? The conceptual battles defining dataset markets' (2025) 2 Platforms & Society. The article focussed on how AI copyright litigation mediates between different claims to rights to generate and justify value from datasets, and deals with broader concerns about the reformation of AI dataset markets and value creation in the digital platform economy.
Theme Leaders
This theme is led by Prof Jeannie Paterson of Melbourne Law School, A/Prof Inbar Levy of Melbourne Law School, Dr Mel Mistica of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology and Prof Julian Webb of Melbourne Law School.