On the evening of December 10, 2022, the fourth session of the Artificial Intelligence Law Lecture Series hosted by the Judicial Big Data Research Base of the People's Court of Southeast University was successfully held. Professor Hu Yohong, Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholars of the Ministry of Education, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of East China University of Political Science and Law, Editor-in-Chief of Jurisprudence, Director of Human Rights Research Institute and Executive Director of Xi Jinping Research Center of Rule of Law Thought, was invited to give a wonderful lecture on Legal Technology in Judicial Trial. The lecture was hosted by Professor Wang Lusheng of Southeast University Law School. Professor Liu Lianjun from Southeast University Law School, Associate Professor Yu Shengfeng from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Law School, Associate Professor Ai Jiahui from Nanjing University Law School and Associate Researcher Xu Minchuan from Southeast University Law School participated in the lecture and discussion. The content of this lecture is summarized here for the benefit of readers.

Professor Hu Yuhong discussed the key issues of legal technology in judicial trial from three aspects, including the concept, characteristics and significance of legal technology, the content of legal technology, and the justification basis of legal technology.

In terms of the concept, characteristics and significance of legal technology. Professor Hu Yuhong points out that legal technology is the technology or means adopted by legal professionals in the process of solving cases for the understanding of legal texts, the discovery of legal facts and the specific application of law, so as to make the solution of legal problems scientific, rational and authoritative. Legal technology is the unity of knowledge and technology, the unity of experience and reason, the unity of science and humanity. Legal technology reflects the accumulation of judicial experience, is a sign of scientific and rationalization of judicial activities, and highlights the technical characteristics of the legal profession. The application of legal technology is conducive to the formation and effectiveness of social control mechanism, the formation of legal professional community, and the bond that connects legal practitioners.

In terms of the content of legal technology, Professor Hu Yuhong proposes that legal technology includes text analysis technology, fact discovery technology and legal application technology. Text analysis technology consists of type and typological thinking technology, legal comprehension technology, legal principle application technology, and judgment technology of uncertain legal concepts. Fact discovery technology is the identification and discovery of facts that are on the same level as law in the application of law. Legal application technology includes legal source identification technology, jurisprudence identification technology, legal interpretation technology, interest weighing technology, legal reasoning technology, legal loophole filling technology, and judgment reasoning technology.

In terms of the justification basis of legal technology, Professor Hu Yuhong believes that the application of legal technology has its own inherent reasonableness requirements. In terms of the nature of things, all legal techniques cannot violate the basic reasoning and reasoning, otherwise such techniques are arbitrary and authoritarian. From the perspective of legal principles, legal technology contains the basis of legal existence, expresses the spirit of law, and embraces the norms and reasoning generally accepted by the public. Legal technology is gradually developed in the process of judicial practice, and is the condensation of the wisdom and experience of generations of legal professionals. In the two-hour lecture, Prof. Hu Yuhong systematically talked about the thinking of legal technology in judicial trial in many aspects, and the audience benefited greatly.

During the talk, Prof. Wang Lusheng pointed out that most of the research on the wisdom of rule of law in judicial scene is focused on the technical level, but the real practicality and depth are inseparable from the profound legal theory; Prof. Liu Lianjun pointed out that legal technology not only includes legal interpretation, legal application and judgment of legal concept, but also the technology of fact discovery, judgment and interpretation is also the connotation of legal technology; Associate Prof. Yu Shengfeng pointed out that legal technology can also be Mr. Hu's lecture gave a clear picture of how contemporary justice can solve the two major problems of legal adjudication and legal argumentation, and revealed that justice is an art of resolving conflicts in human social life; Associate Professor Ai Jiahui discussed with Professor Hu Yuhong on the content of legal technology, such as whether text analysis technology and legal application technology are static and dynamic. Associate researcher Xu Minchuan pointed out that with the deepening of legal AI research, although the research is in the hot spot, the theoretical research is gradually entering the sedimentation stage, and the new issues of digital jurisprudence need to review and dovetail with the traditional jurisprudence thought system in order to achieve development and renewal.

The lecture lasted nearly three hours and attracted about 200 listeners from inside and outside the university to listen to it online. The lecturer's brilliant speech and the lively discussion with the talkers presented the most cutting-edge academic feast in the field of AI jurisprudence for all listeners. This lecture is the Artificial Intelligence Law Lecture Series organized by the Judicial Data Base of the People's Court of Southeast University, which invited Professor Ji Weidong from Shanghai Jiaotong University, Professor Zuo Weimin from Sichuan University and Professor Ma Changshan from East China University of Political Science and Law to give keynote lectures. In the future, the lecture series will continue to invite top scholars in the field of digital rule of law to share their research achievements and talk about the prospect of discipline development, so as to expand the horizon and pulse the future direction for the construction of the discipline of digital law at Southeast University and build a platform for learning, exchange and cooperation.