Legal Management & Technology
About the research group
The Legal Management & Technology research group is concerned with the use of specialist software for the legal profession: software for supporting rulings (including legal advice), the provision of legal information, data management, data analysis, and online dispute resolution.
Research questions
The central question of the research is how specialist software for the legal profession (‘legal tech’) can become useful and justified in the context of legal service provision and legal processes. This links to such research questions as:
- How can technology be deployed in providing people-oriented and responsive legal services (including by government), with personalised services being offered when necessary?
- When does the deployment of legal tech lead to efficiency gains that justify the required investments in its acquisition, development, and implementation?
- What does involvement with the design, implementation, and use of legal tech require in terms of knowledge and skills from legal teams/departments or organisations?
Legal Tech LAB
The Legal Management & Technology research group coordinates the research carried out by students, lecturers, and researchers in the Legal Tech Lab (LTL), the Digitale Vertalingen learning community, and the Tech in Legal community. An area in which the research group particularly stands out is that of its strong and extensive network in the legal professional field.
Research topics
The research group is investigating the opportunities offered by technology for supporting legal processes, varying from specialist databases for legal information, rule-based systems that support the implementation of regulations, to the recent possibilities offered by large language models. A focus on the organisational prerequisites and the role of human behaviour in the successful deployment of technology is a central aspect of the research performed by the research group.
Centre of Expertise Applied AI
The Legal Tech Lab forms part of the AUAS-wide Centre of Expertise Applied Artificial Intelligence, which is represented in every faculty of the university. This has resulted in close links with state-of-the-art developments and applications in the area of artificial intelligence in adjoining fields.
Link with teaching
The research group is closely linked with the Master's in Legal Management at the Bachelors HBO-Rechten en Sociaal Juridische Dienstverlening programmes, but also works in partnership with HBO-ICT and the Digital Society School of the AUAS, and others. Every year, dozens of students perform assignments under the supervision of lecturer-researchers that are set up by the research group or its network.