[l]ex machina

A software’s analysis and re-arrangement of strings of letters and words produces an irritating echo. It is an irritating echo because, at times, the algorithmic attempts to modify, create, and translate legal texts reveal residual traces of reality which rigorous and systematic legal processes aimed to eradicate. Conversely, it is also irritating because, at times, the algorithmic engagement with law surpasses the lawyer’s desire to reduce reality into legal form by ruthlessly succeeding with the expulsion of any non-technological elements from the realm of legal language. Valentin Jeutner is Associate Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law, Lund University.