Main topic: Legal Linguistic Models
IRI§24 – International Legal Informatics Symposium 2024, Wed 14th to Sat 17th February 2024, (probably) on-site in Salzburg and online in Vienna #
Main topic: Legal language models
IRI§24, the 27th IRI§, would like to – in addition to continuing the previous topics – set a further focus on “legal language models” (Large Linguistic Models (LLM) in Law). The main trustee has been dealing intensively with information retrieval and legal databases for over 30 years – here too a corpus-based language model is necessary, albeit in the abstract form of Boolean search with distance operators in full text and metadata. What good researchers used to have as expertise – some still exist today – the legal database has to provide today. But how? ChatGPT only shows what can be achieved with a lot of effort and training. The same applies here: what works well for general language does not necessarily have to be applicable with the necessary quality in the legal world with its very technical language. The IRI§23 already had an excellently attended session (over 100 participants on site and online); on March 28, 2023 there will be an on-site workshop at the Juridicum (with streaming). Submission website: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iris24 (open around mid-June 2023) We would like to have the presentation proposals and papers by October 31, 2023. More than 4 months left, but they will pass quickly. Therefore, please secure the topic now – upload the title and a short abstract – and then upload a paper or a longer abstract as soon as possible, but by the end of October. Submissions will be reviewed, but as always, we aim to be as inclusive as possible. Inquiries: office@iris-conferences.eu; Erich.Schweighofer@univie.ac.at As already envisaged in the 1990s – also by me – we will live in several worlds and that’s a good thing. First of all, of course, in the real world, where we live as humans, but also in cyberspace, where we already do all sorts of things – get information, negotiate, conclude contracts, submit applications, play, download software, work, actually a lot of things that none requires physical reality (much of it still doesn’t work without a body and things). The rule of law and the legal system – which can also take place to a large extent in cyberspace – are not at the top of the negotiations and procedures, but otherwise there are few obstacles. Lawyers produce texts, statements, speeches, arguments … with the realization of multimedia communication – people are calling, zooming, no longer making phone calls – this step is necessary and important. It will be cheaper in the sum of the higher number of cases, but the costs of the rule of law will be higher. But there are many more services – the rule of law for everyone, secure contractual relationships for everyone, not just for those who can afford it.
Location: Salzburg, to thank our advisory board member and long-standing local chairman Prof. Dr. To give Dietmar Jahnel a worthy farewell – and – hopefully – to win him over for a lecture.
We are a symposion and not a symposium – in addition to science, there must be no lack of relaxation, enjoyment, sport and culture. Lawyers’ Ball 2024 (Saturday, February 10, 2024), skiing in St. Johann im Pongau, … that’s our idea. The IRI§ summer trimester and the IRI§ winter trimester will also be there again – to “warm up” and to “fade in” to the next IRI§ year. Also planned – a Lapland seminar in Pyhä/Rovaniemi – in a great lodge at the University of Lapland/Lapin Yliopisto, with the options of the north – skiing, cross-country skiing, hiking, admiring the northern lights, etc. etc.
Submission
Submission website: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iris24
Events
October 31, 2023 – Submission of Papers & Abstracts
December 2023: preliminary program 1st version
December 19, 2023: Final contributions
14-17 February 2024: Conference – on site in Salzburg and online in Vienna