Samuel I. Becher has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of consumer law, contract law, and technology. He is Professor of Law at the City University of Hong Kong School of Law and a Center for AI Safety AI & Society Fellow. He has authored more than 100 professional and academic contributions published in various reputable journals. His work has been cited by academics, courts, and legislators, and covered by media in more than 30 countries and 20 languages. He holds an LL.M. and J.S.D. from Yale Law School and an LL.B. from Tel Aviv University, and clerked for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel.
Benjamin Alarie has spent more than a decade applying artificial intelligence to tax and law. In 2016 he coined the term “legal singularity” in the University of Toronto Law Journal. He developed the thesis in The Legal Singularity (2023, with Abdi Aidid), winner of the AAP PROSE Award and a Donner Prize finalist. Blue J, which he co-founded in 2015 and leads as CEO, is an AI tax research platform used at thousands of firms. He holds the Osler Chair in Business Law at the University of Toronto and an LL.M. from Yale Law School, and clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada for Justice Louise Arbour. Learn more at www.benjaminalarie.com
The line of work behind the book runs from the 2016 paper that named the legal singularity to the papers listed below. This book asks how legal systems should be redesigned once those capabilities exist.
Related Scholarship
The argument behind the book, and the work around it, in the order it was made. Each is independently readable.
2022Contracts in the Age of Smart ReadersYonathan A. Arbel and Samuel I. Becher, 90 George Washington Law Review 83–146. What changes when machines read the fine print.
2023The Legal SingularityAbdi Aidid and Benjamin Alarie, University of Toronto Press. PROSE Award winner, Donner Prize shortlist.
2026The End of ShoppingMark Bartholomew and Samuel I. Becher, 68 William & Mary Law Review, forthcoming. What AI agents do to consumer markets, and to consumer law.
Complete publication records: Samuel I. Becher on SSRN and Google Scholar; Benjamin Alarie on SSRN and Google Scholar. In practice: Blue J, the AI tax research platform Alarie co-founded and leads.
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