Simon Chesterman's Blog, page 2

Weapons of Mass Disruption: Artificial Intelligence and International Law

[Cambridge International Law Journal] The answers each political community finds to the law reform questions posed artificial intelligence (AI) may differ, but a near-term threat is that AI systems capable of causing harm will not be confined to one jurisdiction — indeed, it may be impossible to link them to a specific jurisdiction at all. […]

Herding Schrödinger’s Cats: The Limits of the Social Science Approach to International Law

[Chicago Journal of International Law] The struggle to assert the legitimacy and relevance of international law is integral to its story. Among academics, that tale has seen other lawyers question whether it is “really” law, while scholars of international relations have dismissed it in a bemused footnote. Among politicians, the narrative has been one of […]

The Robot Century

Robots have been part of human culture for a hundred years. How can we ensure that they support — rather than supplant — humans over the next hundred?   The word ‘robot’ entered the modern lexicon a hundred years ago today with the première at Prague’s National Theatre of Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. Set on […]

Your Data or Your Life

Data, in particular personal data, is often described as the ‘new oil’ powering the information economy. It’s an attractive metaphor — evoking transformations underway in a fourth industrial revolution, heralding a world of artificial intelligence and limitless possibilities. Unfortunately, that metaphor is wrong in almost every way. Oil is finite, companies pay millions to extract […]

Artificial Intelligence and the Limits of Legal Personality

[Forthcoming in ICLQ] As artificial intelligence (AI) systems become more sophisticated and play a larger role in society, arguments that they should have some form of legal personality gain credence. It has been suggested that this will fill an accountability gap created by the speed, autonomy, and opacity of AI. In addition, a growing body […]

I, Huckleberry

Magna Carta: The most famous legal text in history. The foundation of the rule of law. Stolen. When Huckleberry Jones is packed off by his parents from New York to a camp for “exceptional teenagers” at Oxford University, his first question is: Why? But meeting the beautiful, enigmatic Kat might just make his time there […]

Can International Law Survive a Rising China?

[Forthcoming in the European Journal of International Law] The founding myth of international law is the sovereign equality of its member states. How, then, can and should it accommodate the rise of one potential hegemon and the decline of another? This review essay discusses an important new book by Cai Congyan, of Xiamen University, that […]

The Curious Case of How Big Firm Lawyers and Female Lawyers Perform in Court

  Does the quality of a lawyer affect your chances of winning a case in court? Should it?   Earlier this week, non-essential court proceedings resumed in Singapore after two months on hold due to the Covid-19 circuit breaker. In most cases, lawyers will continue to appear remotely before judges via teleconference. Trying to make […]

Do Better Lawyers Win More Often? Measures of Advocate Quality and Their Impact in Singapore’s Supreme Court

Parties to a dispute that goes to court typically seek to retain the best lawyer they can afford. But do the ‘best’ lawyers get better results? This article surveys the literature across various jurisdictions before introducing a recent study of determinants of litigation outcomes in Singapore. The focus is on whether there is a correlation […]

Covid-19 and the Global Legal Disorder

When the world restarts and the masks are put away, will the global legal order look the same? Should it?   A crisis is a terrible time to make predictions about the future. But it’s a great time to rethink dubious assumptions of the past, and address tensions revealed in the present. Just within my […]