LS Conference Award: Computer Science and Law Workshop

随着复杂计算在越来越多的人类领域中变得至关重要，跨学科研究的重要性和价值也越来越大。计算机科学和法律的跨学科研究领域在过去两年中已经上升到突出地位。为了取得进展，研究人员必须共同开发计算技术和法律原则，利用每种方法的优点来弥补另一种方法的缺点。要做到这一点，需要建立共同的理解、方法和词汇，以改善两个学科之间的沟通和促进研究。2021年11月，DIMACS离散数学和理论计算机科学中心将在2020年11月成功举办第一次在线研讨会后，举行第二次关于计算机科学与法律共同发展主题的研讨会。第二个研讨会将强调技术平台内容调节——这是一个正好处于这两个学科交界的话题，必须解决媒体中言论自由和真相之间的根本紧张关系。内容审核带来了巨大的技术挑战，这些挑战来自社交媒体内容的庞大数量、自动审核的不完善性质以及人工审核的不切实际。从法律和宪法的角度来看，这个问题同样令人生畏，因为它必须同时处理公民、公司、组织、执法部门和政府的权利和责任。计算机科学和法律研究的核心是用强调共同发展来取代片面的方法。理想情况下，计算机科学家和律师应该合作创建一致的立法语言和技术定义，并捕获广泛同意的原则。例如，立法中所包含的技术考虑和定义应反映什么是技术上可行的，而不是规定模糊或不可能的要求，而这些要求的实施应提供充分的证据，证明其行为符合规定的要求，因此符合法律。目前在隐私、公平、言论自由、社区标准和其他基本社会价值方面的工作表明了共同发展的重要性，并提供了成功和失败的例子。这次DIMACS研讨会将继续发展计算机科学和法律研究社区，并将对广泛的社会问题产生影响，包括公民之间的交流。研讨会将支持人口统计学和智力多样化的研究人员群体的参与，这些研究人员反映了广泛的兴趣：计算机科学家、统计学家、法律学者和研究社会技术组合及其治理的社会科学家。实现共同开发将支持创建具有社会重要性的以计算为导向的社会技术系统，包括作为当今公共广场的在线媒体平台。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As sophisticated computation has become essential in more and more fields of human endeavor, interdisciplinary research has grown in importance and value. The interdisciplinary research area of computer science and law has risen to prominence in the last two years. To make progress, researchers must co-develop computational techniques and legal principles, using the strengths of each approach to compensate for weaknesses in the other. Doing this requires building shared understanding, methodology, and vocabulary to improve communication and catalyze research across the two disciplines. In November 2021, the DIMACS Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science will hold a second workshop on the topic of co-development of computer science and law, following a successful first online workshop held in November 2020. The second workshop will emphasize technology platform content moderation—a topic that sits squarely at the interface of the two disciplines and must address the fundamental tension between freedom of speech and truth in media. Content moderation poses massive technological challenges arising from the sheer volume of social media content, the imperfect nature of automated moderation, and the impracticalities of manual moderation. The problem is equally daunting from a legal and constitutional perspective that must simultaneously address the rights and responsibilities of citizens, companies, organizations, law enforcement, and government.Central to the study of computer science and law is the replacement of one-sided approaches with an emphasis on co-development. Ideally, computer scientists and lawyers should collaborate to create legislative language and technical definitions that are consistent and that capture broadly agreed-upon principles. For example, technical considerations and definitions embedded in legislation should reflect what is technically feasible and not mandate vague or impossible requirements, while implementations of such requirements should produce sufficient evidence that their behavior sits within stated requirements and thus complies with the law. Existing work on privacy, fairness, freedom of expression, community standards, and other essential social values demonstrates the importance of co-development and provides examples of both success and failure. This DIMACS workshop will continue the development of a research community in computer science and law and will have impact on a broad range of societal issues including communication among citizens. The workshop will support participation by a demographically and intellectually diverse group of researchers reflecting a broad range of interests: computer scientists, statisticians, law scholars, and social scientists studying sociotechnical assemblages and their governance. Enabling the co-development will support the creation of computing-oriented sociotechnical systems of societal importance including the online media platforms serving as the public squares of today.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.