Digital Lawyering

This book has sought to bring together two seemingly unrelated topics; Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Nigerian Legal System. The aim was to explore ways they can affect each other, and how the disruption of AI can be managed with the right legal framework.

To do this, it was necessary to commence this study by providing foundation knowledge about AI, its features, manifestations, and possible areas where it poses a challenge to the law. This was necessary because the topic of AI is not a popular topic of discussion, especially among African legal scholars. This was followed by a study of review of related literature on the subject matter of this book.

It was found that in the few cases where legal scholars, not just in Africa, but globally, discuss AI, their focus is on how it will affect the legal profession, as opposed to the general society or the system of laws for their countries. By focusing on the Nigerian Legal System, this long essay earned its mark of distinction from the previous body of literature. Considering the wide scope of the topic, it was necessary to focus on some specific aspects of the legal system. The chosen areas were the adjudicative process, the laws of tortious negligence and strict liability, then a general regulatory framework for AI in Nigeria.

This book proposed the development of an indigenous AI system merged with ADR mechanisms that would reduce the incidence of court congestion alongside a complete legal framework of how it would operate. To give this context, the High Court Laws of Lagos State were utilised. This book also considered the challenges that AI might pose to the tort of negligence in Nigeria in its current form, and concluded that for all purposes, the liability for any harm caused by AI should lie with humans, not the tool, as they do not possess, and are not capable of legal personality, the way humans are. An ethical and regulatory framework was also developed to guide the application, development, and use of AI in Nigeria.

This Article will examine virtual law practice as a necessary and inevitable solution to the globalization of law firms and the lack of access to justice in our country, and it will consider how bona fide office requirements in some states may work against this practice management method. Recent changes to the legal profession due to the globalization of law firms, trends in outsourcing of legal services, and the public demand for online legal services all indicate the need for a wider variety of law practice management structures with continued accountability and connection between the legal practitioner and the state bar.

An increasing number of attorneys and law firms are beginning to deliver legal services online to clients, using technology to create and maintain a law practice structure that is entirely web-based. Virtual law practice is being integrated into traditional law firm structures or being used to set up completely virtual law offices that provide unbundled or limited legal services online. With the increasing globalization of the legal profession and trends in outsourcing legal services by law firms, solo practitioners and smaller firms, as well as larger multijurisdictional law firms, are turning to virtual law practice as a practice management solution. In order to keep up with the public demand for more affordable and accessible online legal services and changes in the legal marketplace, the evolution of law practice management to include some form of virtualization is imperative. This Article will examine virtual law practice as a necessary and inevitable solution to the globalizat...

Digitalization has brought many changes to our society where the Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Sector developments influenced all others business sectors. It has also invented such revenue generation system that states are unable to levy tax on this sector.  The business models of this sector are also a challenge due to unique nature of generating revenue. The traditional taxation approach of value creation and physical presence under corporate taxation is of no relevance in this context. Jurisdictions globally failed to allocate profits of this sector and also the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) issues where the states are being deprived of taxing this sector. The global development of BEPS project by G20/OECD to develop international legal and taxation framework to overcome these problems by amending the Double taxation treaties(DTTs) between states after ratification of Multilateral instrument(MLI) by states. India, UK and EU has ratified the MLI and also part of BEPS project and done legislation to levy tax on Online Working Entities (OWE’s) as minimum tax. Pakistan as a state is also unable to levy tax on OWE’s and deprived from tax revenues at large. Pakistan is signatory of MLI but did not ratified it and no legislation has been done unilaterally to collect taxes from OWE’s. There are some states which have reached some policy measures and legislation to charge tax from OWE’s unilaterally and also given the gateway to collect revenue from OWE’s. This thesis will explore the options for legislation to bring OWE’s into tax net in Pakistan under the comparative approach.

There is an increasing interest in the ethical design of robots. As evidence of this fact, one may refer to some recent reports and the European Parliament’s resolution on civil law rules on robotics.The latter will be the primary focus of this analysis since the EU Parliament is the first legal institution in the world to have initiated work of a law on robots and artificial intelligence. The European strategy on robotics seems affected by two main problems: an excessive emphasis on ethics at the expense of security, and more gen-erally, a lack of awareness of the critical role played by the operation of striking a balance between competing interests. Balancing is pivotal to the interpretation and application of the law. And the current development of AI technologies does not enable the delegation of the operation to robots. Certainly, the most controversial point regards the status of robots as electronic persons. Even though the suggestion may seem extreme, it may prove to be successful, for at least three reasons. First, robots are becoming more and more similar to humans (anthropomorfisation and AI). Second, humans are becoming increasingly akin to robots (artificial enhancement). Third, the robot’s legal personality would be profitable for the robotic industry.

Globalization via the digital age is upon us, demanding a new ethics and an intercultural awareness while the dialectics of globalism and cyberspace mandate a committed reflection on what the synthesis between the digital realm and global citizenship entails. In many ways, the borders that previously separated us as citizens physically and culturally have begun to dissipate, replaced by a call for an intercultural accountability and a form of global citizenship that, on one hand, surpasses borders, patriotism, and nationalism alike, but while on the other, demands an understanding and respect for the cultural idiosyncrasies among us, acknowledging the unique existential paradox of universal citizenship that posits each of us as both stranger and citizen on a commonly shared globe.

What is cosmopolitan in the digital age? Is a global digital citizen the same as merely a digital citizen? While talk of digital citizenship has increased in recent years, usually centered on a capitalist drive, encouraging a full electronic participation in society and a responsibility to digital commerce, many questions remain unanswered.  Is the netizen the citizen of a democratic state, and of digital democracy? As a citizen of the world interacting online, how will one’s “rights” and “duties” be determined? And are these “rights” universal, and in such a case, what does “universal” mean? What are the legal parameters of netizenship, and what will they be as globalization further takes hold? Is democracy critical to citizenship, or is it not? What are the political landscapes of global citizenship in the digital age? And last of all, is the concept of digital citizenship even tangible? Is it real?

There is an increasing interest in the ethical design of robots. As evidence of this fact, one may refer to some recent reports and the European Parliament’s resolution on civil law rules on robotics. The latter will be the primary focus of this analysis since the EU Parliament is the first legal institution in the world to have initiated work of a law on robots and artificial intelligence. The European strategy on robotics seems affected by two main problems: an excessive emphasis on ethics at the expense of security, and more generally, a lack of awareness of the critical role played by the operation of striking a balance between competing interests. Balancing is pivotal to the interpretation and application of the law. And the current development of AI technologies does not enable the delegation of the operation to robots. Certainly, the most controversial point regards the status of robots as electronic persons. Even though the suggestion may seem extreme, it may prove to be suc...