Law and Computational Social Science: Brief Notes of a Civil Procedure Law Scholar

• Autore: Ernesto Fabiani
• Pagine: 321-322

Law and Computational Social Science:

Brief Notes of a Civil Procedure Law Scholar

ERNE STO FABIANI∗

Recently, relationships between law and science1have witnessed the de-

velopment of an area of great importance and interest represented by com-

putational social science (hereinafter CSS), understood as “the integrated, in-

terdisciplinary investigation of social systems as information-processing or-

ganizations and through the medium of advanced computational systems”2.

Research methodologies that characterize contemporary science (statis-

tics, mathematics and computation) have already played an important role

in all social sciences, including an area, like the law, where this may seem

less obvious. Just think, as a mere example, about the contribution statistics

have made, and continue to make, in this f‌ield3.

In this context, further research perspectives have been opened up by

CSS. As pointed out by Cioff‌i-Revilla “computational social scientists are

learning to exploit the advanced and increasingly powerful instruments of

computation to see beyond the visible spectrum of more traditional disci-

plinary analyses”4, and it is interesting to look at (current or potential) ap-

plications for legal science of each of the f‌ive basic CSS research methods,

namely automated information extraction, social network analysis, geospa-

∗The Author is associate professor of Civil procedure lawand associate dean of the Law

School, University of Sannio, Benevento(Italy).

1See, overall, also forfur ther references: N. BOBB IO,Diritto e scienze sociali in ID., “Dalla

struttura alla funzione. Nuovi studi di teoria del diritto”, Roma-Bari, 2007, p. 31 ff.; S.

RODOTÀ ,Diritto, scienza, tecnologia: modelli e scelte di regolamentazione, in “Rivista critica

di diritto privato”, 2004, p. 357 ff.; G. OPPO,Scienza, dir itto, vita umana, in “Rivista di

diritto civile”, 2002, I, p. 11 ff.; A. SA NTOS UOSS O,Diritto, scienza, nuove tecnologie, Padova,

Cedam, 2011; O. ROSE LLI,Scienza, scienza giuridica, scienza della formazione giuridica in I D.,

“Scritti per una scienza della formazione giuridica”, Napoli, ESI, 2012, p. 215 ff.

2C. CIOF FI-RE VILL A,Computational Social Science, in “WIREs Computational Statis-

tics”, Vol. 2, 2010, n. 3, p. 259 ff., p. 259.

3Examples might be different, but I think it is enough to remember that, as particularly

signif‌icant, at least from a more strictly procedural point of view,the Italian Supreme Court

has for a long time widely used statistics for extracting multiple data, concerning proceedings

pending before it, that are of undoubted importance – in several respects – both in the civil

and criminal matters.

4See C. CIOF FI-RE VILL A,op. cit., p. 260.

“Informatica e diritto”, Vol. XXII, 2013, n. 1, pp. 321-326

XXXIX annata – Seconda Serie - Fasc. monografico S. Faro, N. Lettieri (a cura di), "Law and Computational Social Science", ESI, Napoli, 2013, 352 p.