Integrating Computer Science into Legal Discipline: The Rise of Legal Programming

In this paper, the complex nature of relations between law and cyberspace, and the roles of lawyers and programmers within such relations, are considered. Then, the mechanism of connecting law with cyberspace is scrutinised, and its importance is substantiated. A particular focus is on an aspect of this process — the integration of law into code, that is the reflection of legal rules in the lines of code. The author analyses the roles of lawyers and programmers within the process of connecting law with cyberspace, and underlines the importance of cooperation between these two categories of professionals within the integration of law into code. The author demonstrates that the approaches of lawyers and programmers to this integration may substantially differ, and this may affect the overall quality of this process. The main aim of this paper is finding a solution to this problem.The author suggests the solution in the form of a new discipline — legal programming — which is a product of integrating computer science into legal discipline. Legal programming is intended to mitigate the problem by the application of a holistic approach to the integration of law into code. The proposed discipline is to be represented by legal programming experts. After considering legal programming as a discipline, the benefits of involvement of legal programming experts into the process of integrating law into code are exemplified. As a result, the main aim of this paper is achieved by determining the concept of legal programming and illustrating the benefits of its application within the integration of law into code.