Access to Justice via Tech

It was a privilege to present on Access to Justice via Tech to a distinguished delegation from Thailand’s legal community during their visit to Cornell Tech. Judge Napakamol Havanond Sawangchaeng (Cornell LL.M. ’16) also presented on Technology, Courts, and Access to Justice: Thailand’s Journey Toward a More Inclusive Judicial System. It was a wonderful exchange of ideas.

Other members of the delegation included The Honorable Chief Justice Adisak Tantiwong, President of the Supreme Court of Thailand and President of the Thai Bar, and Professor Dr. Kittipong Kittayarak (Cornell LL.M. ’83), Chairman of the Board of the Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ), along with colleagues from the Thai Supreme Court, the Thai Bar, and TIJ.

As Matt D’Amore, our convener, noted in his earlier post, the visit to Cornell Tech capped a broader trip to Cornell centered on remembering the life and legacy of Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha (Cornell LL.M. ’02, J.S.D. ’05), whose years here helped anchor a lasting relationship between our two countries’ legal communities.

I found our discussion of how legal AI tools can help people access courts and shrink the justice gap on both sides of the Pacific particularly interesting. We also learned about TIJ’s “people-centered justice” framework, which puts technology in the service of accessible justice.

Cornell colleagues Greg Morrisett, Frank Pasquale, James Grimmelmann, Sateesh Nori, Jane Swanson, İrem Tümer, Maximilian Paterson, and Nate Schorr all helped make it a particularly fruitful exchange.

Center for Law and AI

Excited to be newly affiliated with Cornell Law School’s Center for Law and AI. The Center “brings together researchers working at the intersection of law and artificial intelligence. The Center explores how AI is reshaping the legal profession, how legal education should evolve in response, how law and policy can effectively govern AI, and how AI tools can advance scholarship on legal and societal questions.”

The Center has four focus areas:

AI and Legal Education. Artificial intelligence is transforming legal practice, from document review to predictive analytics. At the Center for Law and AI, we examine how legal education must evolve to prepare students for this changing landscape. Our work explores curricular innovation, ethical training, and the integration of computational thinking and AI literacy into the legal classroom.

AI and Legal Practice. Artificial intelligence is reshaping how legal services are delivered—from contract analysis and legal research to client counseling and dispute resolution. At the Center for Law and AI, we study how these technologies are changing the roles of lawyers, the structure of legal work, and access to justice. We also examine the ethical, professional, and institutional challenges that accompany the integration of AI into legal practice.

AI and Scholarship. Artificial intelligence opens new frontiers for legal research and analysis—and raises new questions. At the Center for Law and AI, we explore how AI can assist in discovering patterns in legal texts, generating and testing legal theories, and expanding the empirical study of law. We also study how AI interacts with legal institutions and society to generate new legal and societal challenges and opportunities.

Regulating AI. The rise of artificial intelligence poses urgent questions for law and policy. At the Center for Law and AI, we examine how legal frameworks—domestic and international—can be designed to govern AI systems responsibly. Our work explores regulatory design, institutional capacity, democratic accountability, and the evolving role of law in shaping the development and deployment of AI technologies.

A list of other affiliated faculty members, led by Center Director Jed Stiglitz, can be found here.