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First Call for Papers

“Methodologies for Research on Legal Argumentation”

Special Issue of the journal, Informal Logic (ISSN: 0824-2577)

“Methodologies for Research on Legal Argumentation” will explore the current state of the art in the study legal argumentation which is characterized by the applicability of a great variety of concepts, distinctions, frameworks and methods. Although many of these diverse tools are well-developed, in our opinion insufficient attention has been paid to the meta-level discussion between the representatives of various methodological traditions, including, in particular, the legal-theoretical, the philosophical and the logical perspective, as well as the point of view of computer science with focus on AI research.

Our aim is to provide a venue for the exchange of ideas from different research perspectives, including AI and Law, argumentation theory, and legal theory. There is a strong need for cooperation and mutual inspiration between these three domains of research in order to develop more effective, accurate, and scientifically adequate theories and models of legal argumentation. Thorough discussion of scientific aims and adopted methodologies is needed in this field. This may lead to establishing of interdisciplinary research projects related to legal argumentation.

This volume is the 2nd special issue published under auspices of ArgDiaP organisation. The first one, published as an issue of the Argumentation journal, was dedicated to the research of the Polish School of Argumentation represented by Araszkiewicz, Budzynska, Debowska-Kozlowska, Kacprzak, Koszowy, Selinger, Witek, Yaskorska, whose papers were commented by Hodges, Paglieri, Reed and Walton. The issue has also published the School’s Manifesto co-authored by 55 researchers from 20 institutions all across Poland.

The special issue will continue exciting discussions which took place at the 1st MET-ARG workshop (Methodologies for Research on Legal Argumentation) organised in Kraków in 2014 in conjunction with JURIX 2014 (27th International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems) and CMNA 2014 (14th Workshop on Computational Models of Natural Argument).

The scope of the special issue may be defined with regard to the following dimensions:

  • Subject-matter – research goals – methods. legal argumentation as a specific subject matter of inquiry which requires specific research goals and methods together with a thorough discussion of bridging gaps between various traditions, perspectives and methodological frameworks which are currently applied in the study of legal argumentation
  • Cross-disciplinary approach. Which (if any) methodological ideas, concepts and distinctions specific for each of three disciplines (AI & Law, philosophy of argument and legal theory) may turn out to be instructive/inspiring for the others?
  • Top-down and bottom up approaches. Should legal argumentation be analyzed from the point of view of “first principles” approach or should it begin with concrete real-life examples? Is there a middle ground between the two?
  • Formal and computational vs. informal models. How can logical tools contribute to analysis of actual legal argumentation? Are semi-formal and informal approaches more fruitful?
  • From law through argumentation theory to AI and back again. How do presumptions of any of these fields determine the scientific method and the obtained results? Discussion of (in)adequacy of methodological assumptions of existing approaches
  • Descriptive and normative models. How do lawyers argue? How should they?
  • Discussion of (in)adequacy of methodological assumptions of existing approaches

The topics include, but are not limited to:

  • The applicability of formal and computational models of legal reasoning;
  • Bridging gaps between various methods (models, frameworks) employed in the study of legal argumentation;
  • The scope and limits of applying tools for representation of formal argumentation models;
  • Problems and challenges of abstract and structured legal argumentation;
  • Methodology for research on argumentation schemes in legal reasoning;
  • Contrasting goals of and constraints on differing methodological approaches;
  • Arguing about rules, cases, evidence. Does the method differ in research on legal argumentation in different domains?
  • Methods of legal argumentation mining;
  • Heuristics, biases and fallacies in legal argumentation and their role in the research on argumentation;
  • Theories and metatheories of legal argumentation;
  • The language of legal argumentation.
The submitted papers must describe original research which is neither published nor currently under review by other journals or conferences. All submissions will be peer-reviewed  by the members of the Panel of Experts and selected on the basis of their originality, significance, relevance, and clarity of presentation.

Author Guidelines:

Submissions to the Special Issue on Methodologies for Research on Legal Argumentation must be made as PDF document using this template as a guide for formatting, must adhere to the Informal Logic submission guidelines, and should have at least 10 and not exceed 15 pages (approx. 5,000-7,500 words) in length. Submissions should be prepared for blind review: papers must not include names and affiliations of the authors or an acknowledgements section. These aspects can be added at the camera-ready stage. The references should include all published literature relevant to the paper, including previous works of the authors, though care should be taken in the style of writing in order to preserve anonymity.

Papers should be submitted in PDF format through our dedicated EasyChair site no later than 14 Feb 2016:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=metarg1

Submissions will be reviewed by members of the panel of experts. Notification of acceptance will be sent by Apr 2016.

Deadlines:

  • Paper submission deadline: 14 Feb 2016
  • Notification of acceptance: April 2016
  • Final versions of papers: May 2016
  • Submission of the special issue: July 2016

Guest Editors:

  • Michał Araszkiewicz (michal.araszkiewicz (at) uj.edu.pl) is an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Legal Theory at Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. Araszkiewicz holds a PhD in law. His scientific interests encompass legal philosophy, philosophical logic, epistemology, theories of argumentation and the application of Artificial Intelligence tools to legal reasoning. He has published over 30 peer reviewed papers. In particular, Michał Araszkiewicz co-edited (with J. Savelka) the book entitled Coherence: Insights from Philosophy, Jurisprudence and Artificial Intelligence (Law and Philosophy Library: Springer 2013). He is a member of the International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law and is a vice-chair of the ArgDiaP organisation. Araszkiewicz is admitted to legal practice in Poland (since 2010) where he focuses on intellectual property and information technology law.
  • Tomasz Żurek (zurek (at) kft.umcs.lublin.pl) is an assistant professor at the Institute of Computer Science at the Maria Curie Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland. He holds a master’s degree in management and a Ph.D. in computer science. His dissertation concerns the utilisation of artificial intelligence in banking. His current scientific interests focus on representation of legal knowledge and modelling of legal reasoning and argumentation, especially modelling of informal ways of reasoning. He is an author of over 30 peer-reviewed papers and a member of the International Association of Artificial Intelligence and Law as well as the ArgDiaP organisation.

Panel of Experts (to be extended):

For more information, go here: www.argdiap.pl/InformalLogic

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