Mu Miao has posted Legal English, The Rule of Lawyers, and Artificial Intelligence on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This article examines how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping power structures within the legal field, with a primary focus on the U.S. legal system. Historically, a system of the “rule of lawyers,” predicated on the exclusivity of legal English, created a powerful legal elite by monopolizing legal knowledge and procedures, thereby solidifying existing power dynamics. However, the rise of AI is fostering a complex, hotly contested “human–AI hybrid legal ecosystem.” This transformation involves a subtle power reconfiguration from the traditional “lawyer–client” system to an emerging “techno–legal” system. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concepts of governmentality and biopower alongside Ran Hirschl’s hegemonic preservation theory, I analyze this power dynamic through a qualitative, comparative approach. Using a hypothetical scenario involving AI simplifying the United States budget as a key example, I argue that AI’s apparent “democratization”of legal knowledge is actually a form of paternalistic power that transfers interpretiveauthority to a new technological elite. However, cross-national case studies—including the proactive legislative responses in the EU AI Act —reveal that the legal community is not passively ceding power but is actively engaged in a bilateral struggle to assimilate technology. My analysis of the qualitative complexityof legal texts demonstrates that AI’s limitations in understanding logical structures, terminological ambiguity, and citation norms ensure the indispensability of humanlegal reasoning. Understanding AI’s profound impact on law thus requires movingbeyond a superficial narrative of efficiency to grapple with current power reconfigurations and the ongoing negotiation of elite roles. This is crucial for reimagining law’s fairness and democratic nature in an era of rapid technological evolution.
Fascinating, highly recommended.