I hope that you won't mind if I interrupt your holiday reveries to
announce some developments in the plans for a program on "Artificial
Intelligence and Judicial Proof" at the forthcoming Second World
Conference on New Trends in Criminal Investigation and Evidence in
Amsterdam. (Please see http://www.eurocongres.com/criminallaw/ for
general information about this conference.)
Our program will take place on Sunday, December 12, 1999. It will focus
on the possible contributions of artificial intelligence and AI-related
disciplines to the study and practice of forensic investigation and
proof. Subtopics in this program include (i) the dynamics of judicial
proof, (ii) applications of rough set theory to reasoning about
evidence, (iii) methods of diagramming argument about evidence, (iv)
demonstration and discussion of Norsys Bayes net software (Netica), (v)
demonstration and discussion of software and strategies for marshaling
and evaluating forensic evidence, and (vi) abduction or abductive
inference. A recurring theme in some or many of the panels and workshops
will be the relationship between AI and AI-related methods for analyzing
evidence, on the one hand, and common sense reasoning about evidence, on
the other hand.
The participants in this program will include Johan van Benthem (Holland
& Stanford), Johannes Nijboer (Holland), John Josephson (U.S.A.), Scott
Brewer (U.S.A.), Zdislaw Pawlak (Poland), Lothar Philipps (Germany),
David Schum (U.S.A.), Marianne Belis (France), Paul Snow (U.S.A.),
Ronald Shapira (Israel), Craig Callen (U.S.A.), Ronald Allen (U.S.A.),
Marilyn MacCrimmon (Canada), Vern Walker (U.S.A.), Giovanni Sartor
(Italy), Ephraim Nissan (U.K.), Daničle Bourcier (France), Brent
Boerlage (Canada), Antonio Martino (Italy & Uruguay), Paolo Garbolino
(Italy), Franco Taroni (Italy), and perhaps Judge Tom Smith (Canada) and
Paul Zuckerman (U.S.A.). Despite his complete lack of expertise in the
field of artificial intelligence, Peter Tillers (U.S.A. & once upon a
time, Latvia!) will serve as the chair of this ambitious program.
I hope that you will join us for an interesting, productive, and
path-breaking discussion in Amsterdam on December 12 in the year 1999!
Sincerely yours,
Peter Tillers
P.S. I beg your forgiveness if you receive more than one copy of this
message.
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Tillers' Dynamic Evidence Site
--with "frames":
http://www.tiac.net/users/tillers/index.html
--sans "frames":
http://www.tiac.net/users/tillers/home.html
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Peter Tillers, Professor of Law
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
55 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10003, U.S.A.
(212) 790-0334; FAX (212) 790-0205