PROSE Award Winner · Donner Prize Shortlist

The Legal Singularity

How artificial intelligence can make law radically better.

By Abdi Aidid & Benjamin Alarie

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The Legal Singularity book cover

Published by University of Toronto Press · 226 pages

About the Book

First coined by Benjamin Alarie in 2016, the legal singularity is the future state of law that advances in AI make possible. In this 2023 book, Aidid and Alarie examine the limits of today's legal institutions and show how legal prediction could transform the way law is interpreted, applied, and delivered — an ambitious case for a world in which law becomes functionally complete.

Praise

“

A powerful and important book. The fundamental insight, that artificial intelligence will transform not just the specific content of legal rules but the general nature of law, is surely correct. Essential reading for legal theorists.

Daniel Markovits Guido Calabresi Professor of Law, Yale Law School
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A compelling case that law as we know it will change dramatically, and that justice will be the biggest beneficiary.

Lawrence Lessig Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School
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Timely, challenging, and profound. A book that deserves to be read widely by naysayers and evangelists alike.

Richard Susskind OBE KC (Hon) Author of Tomorrow's Lawyers

The Authors

Professor Abdi Aidid

Abdi Aidid

University of Toronto Faculty of Law

Abdi Aidid is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and the Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Access to Justice. In 2024–2025 he was a Visiting Associate Professor at Yale Law School, and he is currently the Ian D. Shugart Visiting Scholar at the Canada School of Public Service. Before entering academia, he practised litigation at Covington & Burling LLP in New York and Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP in Toronto, and served as Vice President, Legal Research at Blue J.

Professor Benjamin Alarie

Benjamin Alarie

University of Toronto Faculty of Law

Benjamin Alarie is co-founder and CEO of Blue J, the world's leading AI tax research platform. He holds the Osler Chair in Business Law at the University of Toronto, earned his LL.M. at Yale Law School, and clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada. In 2016 he coined the term “legal singularity” to describe the future state of law that advances in AI make possible. He developed that thesis with Abdi Aidid in The Legal Singularity, which won the AAP PROSE Award and was shortlisted for the Donner Prize.

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