ThinkPiece - Using WYSH Computer Programs to Model the Alien Tort Claims Act

By Eric Allen Engle

View PDF

6 Yale J.L. & Tech. 161

This paper argues that an artificial intelligence algorithm can model some of the principles of civil procedure. The binary conditionals used in civil procedure - e.g., personal jurisdiction exists/does not exist - correspond closely to the Boolean logic used by computers. Modeling procedural rules on a computer is thus possible and possibly useful. To illustrate this thesis, this paper applies the WYSH computer programming language to the Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victim Protection Act.