The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) on 30 November 2018 organises in Lille a conference on the legal aspects of artificial intelligence.

Absence of the Dutch
Interestingly there is no Dutch involvement in the main programme (universities, law firms), even though European ‘hot shots’ are present, like:

• Věra Jourová (Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, European Commission),
• Paul Nemitz (Principal Adviser “Strategies for cross-cutting justice policies or legal actions”, European Commission) and
• Yannick Meneceur (Special Advisor, CEPEJ [European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice of the Council of Europe], Policy advisor on digital transformation and artificial intelligence).

Is that because Dutch lawyers do not speak French? The conference will be held in French and English (with simultaneous interpretation).

Invitation
In their conference newsletter CCBE invites lawyers as follows:

The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the voice of the legal profession in Europe, is examining the impact of artificial intelligence on justice. What will be the effects of the integration of artificial intelligence into 21st century justice on the legal profession? Take part in this discussion and the construction of the future of the profession by registering for the workshops and an interactive plenary session.

Representatives of European institutions such as the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and many experts and actors from the technology and legal sectors will take part in the discussions alongside European lawyers and Bars and Law Societies and will share their views.

Outline of the day:
• Introduction to the themes by experts
• Discussions and debates during interactive workshops
• Presentation of different perspectives on the use of artificial intelligence
• Conclusions from the workshops

Further information and the detailed programme are available on the conference website.

On the website the extra introduction runs as follows:

A new revolution is on the way, with the emergence of artificial intelligence in the field of justice. AI is promising to reduce repetitive and time-consuming tasks, speed up judicial processes, make the judge’s task easier and make court decisions more reliable and fairer.
But the use of algorithms by the judicial system, the massive exploitation of judicial data or the use of automated machine learning systems raise many questions and constitute a real challenge for the judicial institution and lawyers.
Such essential principles as the contradictory, or the equality of arms, can be strongly impacted by the use of artificial intelligence.
How can the development and use of AI-based tools and applications to guarantee the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens be framed? What procedural guarantees will we have to discuss the diagnoses provided by intelligent systems? How will we be able to evaluate the quality of the data collected and used by the algorithms? How should the training of lawyers evolve, to enable them to detect and correct algorithm biases? What tools will law firms need to develop to effectively assist and defend their clients? Finally, what will be the respective place of humans and machines in the justice of tomorrow?
These and other questions will be discussed at the Conference in Lille, which will bring together legal practitioners, bar associations and academics from all over Europe.

More information:

• Conference website
• Main programme
• Workshops
• Speakers
• General website of the CCBE