Hybrid Approaches to Legal Technologies

This Research Proposal invites submissions exploring “hybrid intelligence” in one or more of its various facets – e.g. as neuro-symbolic methods, or as human-machine collaboration – within the legal domain. We seek original research that investigates the interplay between technologies and organizational workflows in public, private, and civic organizations, addressing their interactions, potential synergies, and implications for enhancing legal activities. This research topic includes but is not limited to:

• Neuro-symbolic AI: Research examining the combination of symbolic reasoning (e.g., logic-, rule-based systems) and sub-symbolic AI (e.g., neural networks, deep learning, large language models, machine learning methods).
• Knowledge representation and reasoning: How can neuro-symbolic methods improve the representation and reasoning with legal knowledge, such as legal rules, precedents, and legal documents?
• Explainability and interpretability: How can neuro-symbolic approaches enhance the explainability and interpretability of AI systems in legal contexts?
• Hybrid architectures: Development and evaluation of novel neuro-symbolic architectures for legal tasks such as legal document analysis, contract review, legal prediction, and legal advice.
• Human-machine collaboration: Research exploring the dynamic interaction between humans and AI systems in legal settings. This may include:
• Socio-technical studies: Investigating the social, organizational, and ethical implications of human-AI collaboration in the practice of legal or paralegal activities
• Human-computer interaction (HCI): Designing and evaluating user interfaces and workflows that facilitate effective human-AI collaboration in legal or paralegal tasks.
• Case studies: Analyzing real-world examples of human-AI collaboration in legal settings, identifying successes and challenges.
• Organizational studies: Examining how law firms, legal and administrative departments are adapting their organizational structures and practices to leverage hybrid intelligence.

Scope and Themes

This special issue will delve into a range of themes related to hybrid intelligence in law, including:

• Normative reasoning and decision-making: How can hybrid intelligence systems support legal and para-legal professionals in reasoning, decision-making, and problem-solving?
• Legal document analysis: Utilizing hybrid intelligence for tasks such as document summarization, classification, information extraction, and contract review.
• Legal prediction and forecasting: Employing hybrid intelligence to predict legal outcomes, assess risks, and forecast legal trends.
• Access to justice: Exploring the potential of hybrid intelligence to improve access to justice for underserved communities.
• Ethical and societal implications: Examining the ethical, social, and legal implications of deploying hybrid intelligence systems in the legal domain, including issues of bias, fairness, accountability, and transparency.

Submission Guidelines´

We welcome submissions in the form of original research articles, case studies, technical reports, and critical reviews. All submissions must adhere to the journal's standard submission guidelines and undergo a rigorous peer-review process.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Hybrid Intelligence, Neuro-symbolic AI, Human-Machine Collaboration, Legal Document Analysis, AI Ethics in Law, Legal Reasoning

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.