Over the last decade, data and the data sciences have become of primary relevance both in the court of law and for legislators. Recourse to probability theory and statistics to support legal arguments is widespread. Data science is being applied to analyze and improve judicial ruling. Algorithmic learning has been the object of several important policy decisions, with the issue of fairness in algorithmic decision-making receiving special attention by the legislators. Because of this, the ability to understand, debate, and support arguments with quantitative evidence is now key in the legal profession. 

In this seminar, students will learn the fundamentals of probability and statistics to familiarize themselves with the central concepts in data analysis. Four steps of data science in the law are covered, using mainly accessible tools such as spreadsheets: data acquisition, cleaning, exploration and visualization. Students will develop sufficient understanding of data science to be able to engage and work alongside data analysts, economists, managers, computer scientists and others either as team leaders or valuable team members in law firms, legal departments, courts and other private and public legal institutions.