It was lately reported {that a} main expertise adviser to the Lord Chief Justice has proposed the creation of a brand new institute of authorized innovation that may determine gaps within the legislation brought on by technological developments, comparable to crypto property and AI, and promote higher use of English legislation in world enterprise contracts.
Following this information, Counsel Kate Gee, crypto litigation knowledgeable at Signature Litigation argues that the deliberate reforms will fill an necessary lacuna within the authorized system of England and Wales and make clear necessary uncertainties throughout the legislation created by crypto-assets and different quickly evolving applied sciences. Within the visitor publish piece for The Fintech Occasions, she explains how the transfer will solidify the UK’s place as a world chief for litigation and disputes.
The legislation and expertise have been growing at more and more completely different speeds for greater than a decade. As a expertise advisor to the Lord Chief Justice, Professor Richard Susskind has lengthy argued that the hole must be bridged. It subsequently made sense that final November, the Grasp of the Rolls, Sir Geoffrey Vos, appointed Susskind as chair of a brand new group with the duty of drawing a street map for the civil justice system by way of the remainder of this decade.
Along with monitoring rising and anticipated technological developments, the group’s most important aims embrace taking and inspiring a long-term view of the influence of expertise on the administration of justice, with a specific emphasis on growing entry to justice and sustaining England and Wales as a pre-eminent world chief for dispute decision.
In January this 12 months, Susskind went additional by calling for the institution of a Nationwide Institute for Authorized Innovation. Its job can be to coordinate and intensify the UK’s funding in lawtech and innovation. Past selling higher use of English legislation in worldwide contracts to world corporations as a solution to govern technological improvements comparable to blockchain, its remit would additionally prolong to figuring out gaps within the legislation brought on by technological developments, comparable to Synthetic Intelligence (AI).
Susskind argues that an impartial physique ought to be established akin to the Alan Turing Institute. Its objective can be to pioneer analysis into AI and determine areas of legislation which will have did not preserve tempo with innovation. He lately defined to the FT: “The enterprise world can be modified by expertise, and a problem can be offering a platform for the supporting legislation for these new applied sciences.”
Taking a strategic strategy to the interaction between technological development and the authorized system within the UK has by no means been extra necessary. As issues stand, there’s a threat that the UK’s authorized sector may lose out to rival centres comparable to Singapore and Dubai, significantly if passing new laws fails to maintain up with technological development (whether or not by way of velocity or substance). Singapore, specifically, has been gaining floor over the previous decade by way of its funding in, and deployment of, expertise.
Based on the latest annual survey revealed by Queen Mary College of London, Singapore tied with London as the highest seat for arbitration on this planet – the primary time it has achieved such a rating. Revolutionary use of expertise was recognized as one of many key standards for the rating.
Whereas courts on this jurisdiction are already taking an modern strategy to make use of of the instruments already at their disposal, additional integration of expertise inside current authorized frameworks will assist to guard the UK’s place as a world chief for disputes – and the creation of a nationwide institute, as envisaged by Susskind, would complement the UK’s armoury within the aggressive battle between worldwide dispute decision centres.
Susskind’s well timed proposal for a nationwide institute is definitely welcome, doubtlessly delivering a major enhance to the UK Innovation Technique (Main the long run by creating it), which was revealed by the federal government final July. It will additionally assist to cement the nation’s place as a world chief in new applied sciences – in flip, benefiting the authorized sector extra extensively. In authorized phrases, the transfer would additionally doubtless ship much-needed readability on sure authorized points arising out of technological developments (together with, crucially, in regards to the English courtroom’s jurisdiction to listen to disputes related to such applied sciences).
As expertise – together with AI, blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – proceed to advance, the nationwide institute would additionally assist to determine areas of the legislation which are now not match for objective. A variety of analogue legal guidelines have to be changed by digital laws that accommodates the wants of the advancing enterprise world – for instance, in mental property, tax and information safety legal guidelines regarding data saved on the blockchain, for instance.
The ever-wider utility of AI and the proliferation of digital property is creating extra areas of authorized uncertainty. In relation to AI expertise, for instance, there may be uncertainty about legal responsibility for harm, and in regards to the adequacy of anti-discrimination legal guidelines in coping with the bias that may come up from algorithmic decision-making.
Regardless of the challenges, English courts have been – and it should be hoped will proceed to be – modern of their strategy to those growing areas – together with in relation to disputes involving tech and digital property (like cryptocurrency and NFTs) and as to questions of jurisdiction.
As disputes involving new applied sciences improve in quantity, and within the absence of particular laws, there may be an elevated threat of contradictory rulings. For instance, final autumn, the Court docket of Enchantment dominated that an AI system known as Dabus couldn’t be classed as an inventor on a UK patent utility as a result of it was not an individual underneath English legislation. Nonetheless, rulings on the identical concern from courts in a number of different jurisdictions, together with Australia’s Federal Court docket, have contradicted this discovering.
However the creativity and suppleness of English judges in utilizing current legal guidelines to achieve their selections, it’s now clear that recent laws can be required in various areas. As regards to crypto property, for instance, regulators, politicians and even the Financial institution of England have been outspoken on the necessity for particular new legal guidelines and rules to be drafted and applied.
The potential institution of a Nationwide Institute for Authorized Innovation will hopefully act as a catalyst for strategic reform. By taking a long-term, coordinated and strategic view of the influence of expertise on the administration of justice, it would have far-reaching implications, each for the long run operation of the UK justice system and for sustaining its aggressive place on this planet.
