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Leibniz's Dream: How to Automate Legal Reasoning with Artificial Intelligence
In the 17th Century, the philosopher, mathematician, and lawyer Gottfried Leibniz envisioned the creation of a characteristica universalis and calculus ratiocinator that would enable reasoning in law and morals as systematically as in geometry and analysis. His goal was to resolve legal disputes with the precision and clarity with which accountants settle financial discrepancies. “To take pen in hand, sit down at the abacus and, having called in a friend if they want, say to each other: Let us calculate!”
We are now, for the first time in history, positioned to realise Leibniz's dream of automating legal reasoning. The crucial step in this process, Shapiro will argue, is the alignment of sophisticated computer science techniques with appropriate types of legal problems. Automating code-based legal reasoning, which relies on explicit statutes and regulations, differs fundamentally from automating case-based reasoning, which depends on precedents and interpretations.
Shapiro will explore how formal methods and Large Language Models (LLMs) can be utilised to achieve what Leibniz envisioned three centuries ago, effectively transforming the landscape of legal reasoning through the power of modern computational technology.
The Myint Zan Law and Philosophy Lecture is an annual lecture made possible by the generosity of the donor, Professor Myint Zan. Each lecture is presented by an outstanding and distinguished scholar working in law, philosophy, or at their intersection, and helps build valuable bridges across the university and beyond the academy to address fundamental challenges facing humankind.
A reception will follow in the foyer after Professor Shapiro’s lecture. Please indicate your dietary restrictions in the registration form.
About the Speaker
Scott J. Shapiro is the Charles F. Southmayd Professor of Law and professor of philosophy at Yale Law School. His scholarship spans the philosophy of law, international and criminal law, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.
Shapiro is the author of Legality (2011); The Internationalists (2017, with Oona Hathaway); and Fancy Bear Goes Phishing (2023). He also co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law (2002, with Jules Coleman).
Shapiro holds a B.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He serves as co-editor of Legal Theory and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and his commentary has appeared in outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Foreign Affairs.
Shapiro founded the Yale Documentary Project, which provides legal counsel to independent filmmakers, and co-founded the Yale Legal AI Lab, focused on the automation of legal reasoning. From 2024 to 2025, he was Special Assistant for AI Ethics to the Chief AI Officer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
About the Donor
Professor Myint Zan is an ANU alumnus (Master of International Law, 1984). From 1990 to 2016 taught law and law-related subjects in Universities in Malaysia, Australia, the South Pacific and the United States. The subjects he taught include international law, administrative law, human rights law, aspects of Southeast Asian and South Pacific Law. From 2006 to 2016, he taught Jurisprudence (Legal Philosophy) at the Faculty of Law, Multimedia University, Malacca, Malaysia.
He has contributed funds to the ANU, University of Michigan Law School (another of his alma maters) and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Abramson Cancer Center (his late parents medical doctors’ alma mater: contributions are to the fields of orthopaedics and oncology).
At the ANU, he had established in perpetuity Myint Zan prize in Law Studies/International Law for undergraduate students at the College of Law, the Myint Zan prize in Philosophy of Science for undergraduate students at the Department of Philosophy, also in perpetuity.
Between 2019 and 2023, five post-doctoral scholars have visited the ANU Philosophy Department on a Myint Zan Philosophy Fellowship.
He also established the Myint Zan Fellowship in the Master of Asian and Pacific Studies at the ANU for the years 2023 to 2026. He established the Myint Zan Law and Philosophy Lecture at the ANU Department of Philosophy for a period of five years in 2021. The inaugural Myint Zan Law and Philosophy Lecture was delivered by Judge Hilary Charlesworth of the International Court of Justice in August 2023.
Location
Speakers
- Professor Scott Shapiro (Yale Law School)
Contact
- Nic Southwood