General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6280 / JDOC6280 |
| Course name: | Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Law |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | Second |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credit / 6 credits |
1.2 Course description
The recent years witnessed a global competitive race for the development of technologies broadly known as “artificial intelligence (AI)”. More recently, the hype about AI and its expected benefits for a broad range of areas of human activities has been joined by serious ethical concerns about the inherent risks and potential dangers. Addressing these concerns, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) issued the “Ethical Norms for the New Generation Artificial Intelligence” at the national level. At the global level, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) issued the “Recommendation on the Ethics of AI” in November 2021, which recognizes “the profound and dynamic positive and negative impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on societies, environment, ecosystems and human lives, including the human mind, in part because of the new ways in which its use influences human thinking, interaction and decision- making”. However, the use of non-binding guidelines to address these concerns has increasingly been questioned in terms of their effectiveness controlling the risks posed by AI in general as well as specific applications (e.g. Chat GPT) in particular. As a concrete legislative effort, the course will present the proposal issued in April 2021 by the European Union (EU) for an Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA), which marks the first attempt to adopt a comprehensive binding law on AI.
Overall, the course exemplifies the novel, cross-cutting and cross-boundary character of AI in order to analyze and better understand the serious regulatory problems posed by AI to national legal systems as well as the international legal system as a whole. The course equally explores the nexus between AI and law by using an interdisciplinary approach to introduce the major problems caused by AI and related technologies. It will present various specific AI applications or systems to identify both their expected benefits as well as related risks and inherent dangers.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Rostam J. Neuwirth | TBA | TBA | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Have a general understanding of statistical analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
CLO 2 Have an understanding of the current and emerging legal and policy issues created by applications of artificial intelligence.
CLO 3 Engage in academic and policy debates about the direction and approaches of future legal studies and law reform.
2.2 LLM and JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
JD – https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Class participation | N/A | 20% | 1, 2, 3 | |
| Short research paper | 30 Apr 2024 | 80% | 1, 2, 3 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
To be advised by course convenor(s).
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Seminar: | 3 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 ± 5 hours (ie. 150 ± 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
To be advised by course convenor(s).
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list: | TBA |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/