LS Conference Award: Computer Science and Law Workshop

As sophisticated computation has become essential in more and more fields of human endeavor, interdisciplinary research has grown in importance and value. The interdisciplinary research area of computer science and law has risen to prominence in the last two years. To make progress, researchers must co-develop computational techniques and legal principles, using the strengths of each approach to compensate for weaknesses in the other.

Doing this requires building shared understanding, methodology, and vocabulary to improve communication and catalyze research across the two disciplines. In November 2021, the DIMACS Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science will hold a second workshop on the topic of co-development of computer science and law, following a successful first online workshop held in November 2020.

The second workshop will emphasize technology platform content moderation—a topic that sits squarely at the interface of the two disciplines and must address the fundamental tension between freedom of speech and truth in media. Content moderation poses massive technological challenges arising from the sheer volume of social media content, the imperfect nature of automated moderation, and the impracticalities of manual moderation.

The problem is equally daunting from a legal and constitutional perspective that must simultaneously address the rights and responsibilities of citizens, companies, organizations, law enforcement, and government.

Central to the study of computer science and law is the replacement of one-sided approaches with an emphasis on co-development. Ideally, computer scientists and lawyers should collaborate to create legislative language and technical definitions that are consistent and that capture broadly agreed-upon principles. For example, technical considerations and definitions embedded in legislation should reflect what is technically feasible and not mandate vague or impossible requirements, while implementations of such requirements should produce sufficient evidence that their behavior sits within stated requirements and thus complies with the law.

Existing work on privacy, fairness, freedom of expression, community standards, and other essential social values demonstrates the importance of co-development and provides examples of both success and failure. This DIMACS workshop will continue the development of a research community in computer science and law and will have impact on a broad range of societal issues including communication among citizens.

The workshop will support participation by a demographically and intellectually diverse group of researchers reflecting a broad range of interests: computer scientists, statisticians, law scholars, and social scientists studying sociotechnical assemblages and their governance. Enabling the co-development will support the creation of computing-oriented sociotechnical systems of societal importance including the online media platforms serving as the public squares of today.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.