Browser extension “decodes law” for laypeople in Hong Kong
“We believe law is not a privilege but something that should be easy enough for everyone to understand,” says Global Legal Hackathon team in Hong Kong
A recent study in Hong Kong reveals that the vast majority of unrepresented litigants have difficulty understanding legislation and courtroom procedures that apply to them. This widespread lack of knowledge means litigants require more time and resources from Hong Kong’s judiciary, which puts a significant strain on the system and potentially undermines the fairness of a trial.
But a group of law students, business strategists, developers and data scientists have set out to change this by “decoding law” for laypeople. They developed a browser extension during the first round of the Global Legal Hackathon event in Hong Kong — hosted by Asia Capital Markets Institute and Thomson Reuters — and have already made waves in Hong Kong’s legal sector.
Earlier this month, the team was invited to share their solution with the Hong Kong Department of Justice. Next week, they head to New York to compete in the final round of the Global Legal Hackathon.
Using Python, the browser extension helps break down the complex sentence structure, vocabulary, and legal meaning behind legislation so that the law can be “understood by all people,” not just the professionals. Currently, they are searching for potential funders and partnerships in the public sector to help them realize this goal.
We spoke to Team Decoding Law about their browser extension and experience in the hackathon so far. Here’s what they told us.
How did the Decoding Law team come together?
Sally Yiu: Alison Li, Edelweiss Kwok and Ellie Tse were previously teammates for the PILnet Law for Change Student Competition, in which they developed an innovative solution to achieve social justice. They were later encouraged to join the Global Legal Hackathon, and invited me, Sherman Ho and Steve Suen to join them before the hackathon started. We met Jesmer Wong, Raymond Luk, and Wendy Kwan at the hackathon venue, and formed a team of nine with a great mix of legal, business and technological backgrounds!
When the team originally pitched this legal tech solution, you said, “We believe law is not a privilege but something that should be easy enough for everyone to understand.” Well said! Can you elaborate on why you decided to build a browser extension that helps people understand legislation?
Alison Li: Legislation is the most precise source of law. It is a good starting point for laypersons to understand what are their obligations and rights. We certainly have thought about case law, but some principles are not that certain and are quite challenging for the majority of the public to understand.
Sherman Ho: I think this idea must have crossed the minds of everyone who has ever studied law! Not only that, it has been a problem whenever I mention a statute to a friend who is not legally trained. Thinking that the law is meant to be followed by all people, then shouldn’t it be understood by all people as well? I believe that providing an easy to access solution in this digital era, in the form of a browser plugin, can be a step in the right direction to solving the problem.
Jesmer Wong: I personally believe that understanding provisions might be difficult for the underprivileged and thus there might be a market for [our solution].
Steve Suen: While a website or a mobile application probably can do more than a plugin, a browser plugin is just the most cost effective solution, given our limited time and funding.
Raymond Luk: It’s also considered an easy option to deploy through the Chrome marketplace, especially since the user doesn’t need to download or install additional software on their computer.
Can you briefly explain the underlying tech you use? How is machine learning involved?
Jesmer Wong: We plan to use a programming language called Python to realize this. There is a library called Tensorflow, and its auxiliary library Tensorboard provides neural network training functionality to allow Natural Language Processing (NLP) of the law facts in order to predict the respective ordinances that the users might want to refer to.
Raymond Luk: For the machine learning, we adopt various methodology including scilearn-tf-idf to facilitate NLP of law facts in order to predict the respective ordinances.
Are there any other tools out there like yours?
Steve Suen: I don’t happen to see one. If there is, it isn’t made for people in Hong Kong.
Jesmer Wong: There are particular tools like LexisNexis and WesLaw that provide a comprehensive search function, but their service is expensive and of high barrier to entry. However, they serve stakeholders like barristers, solicitors and corporate lawyers, whereas unrepresented litigants might not be able to tap into them.
What was the biggest challenge in developing — and launching — the plug in and how did you overcome it?
Jesmer Wong: We have been struggling the programming code to make it work.
Steve Suen: If you’re talking about front end, then no. About back end, though I am not involved, I believe the biggest challenge is to find enough training data for the AI. Since we don’t have direct access to a database storing law cases, the accuracy and coverage of the AI can be limited due to the lack of training data.
What do you think will be the biggest challenge going forward? [How] do you plan to address it?
Jesmer Wong: It would be preparation of data, in particular the facts and the respective naming of the ordinances for the neural network to train and learn from it.
Will you continue to work on the tool post hackathon?
Alison Li: We have not really reached a conclusion on this, but we think it depends on the available resources. We have been talking to different parties, including the Department of Justice, to see if they are willing to invest or take up the tech-side development, which as mentioned is the greatest challenge to us.
What has been the most exciting part of building this product as part of the hackathon?
Ellie Tse: The most exciting part of building DecodingLaw is to pitch our idea in front of the mentors before our final presentation. Mentors in the Hackathon are from all walks of life including official from SFC, representatives from legal-tech companies such as Zegal and Korum and others. They are all very inspiring people and we were thrilled to have opportunities exchanging ideas with them. Opinions provided by them are valuable and have helped us improve our product. For example, the SFC official has provided feedbacks on feasibility and we have incorporated the feedback into Decoding Law.
Jesmer Wong: Building the code was a rollercoaster process.
Let’s meet the team behind Decoding Law!
Alison Li is in her third year at HKU BBA (Law). Previously, she interned with Freshfields in London and is an incoming intern with KWM in Shanghai. “ I have always wanted to help the underprivileged get access to justice and I believe legal tech will play a pivotal role here…The GLH is a great platform for us to meet legal and tech talents and exchange and even realise our innovative ideas. It is indeed inspiring to see different teams’ approaches and solutions, which is unprecedented but feasible.”
Edelweiss Kwok is a third-year student at HKU BBA(Law) & LLB student. “As a grassroots law student, my aspiration is actually to improve A2J in our society. With the application of technology, I believe together we can build a fairer society… The competition is an eye-opening experience (as a newbie to hackathons) in that it provides lots of different insights for legal tech that I have never imagined before.”
Sally Yiu is in her third year at HKU BBA(Law) and is an enthusiastic learner who loves to take up challenges! Having previously interned at a legal analytics and intelligent search services firm in Beijing, she shares a genuine interest in exploring the development of legal tech around the world. The Global Legal Hackathon is the first hackathon that she has joined. “It is amazing to meet so many people from different expertise who share the same vision of making lives better by way of legal tech…The legal industry has always been described as very conservative especially when it comes to the application of technology. I am indeed impressed to see so many talented minds collaborate and come up with feasible solutions to solve certain legal problems in the society.”
Sherman Ho is a third-year CUHK LLB student who has been following technological developments and events in law, particularly surrounding blockchain and machine learning given their impact on our daily lives. “The legal industry has not fully utilized the great potential of technology, so it is really my pleasure to see and participate in such a great event like this hackathon. I believe that through ‘demystifying’ the law and preventing misunderstanding by the general public about the legal system, access to justice will be improved…Being able to work with people I’ve met on the site and building something beyond my imagination with our team is really a satisfying moment.”
Ellie Tse is a third year CUHK LLB student whose interest in legaltech grew from chatting with a friend working in IBM. “I gained a lot of inspirations in the hackathon and have loved meeting different people and ideas — and the food!”
Steve Suen is a CUHK Computer Science (Hons.) graduate with a prolonged interest in integrating tech with daily life — which is why he joined the hackathon. Currently, he is a software developer at Wake Limited and a textbook editor in HKU e-Learning Development Laboratory. “I enjoy working with tech people with different backgrounds and have gained lots of inspirations and new opinions [at the hackathon]…I truly believe that technology can change the world.”
Jesmer Wong, MBA (CUHK), RSMBB, TRIZ L2, is a data scientist in a logistics firm, working with supply chain analytics. Wong has strong interest in applying machine learning, artificial intelligence, and blockchain applications to different industries. “It’s been an amazing journey for me to understand the data in the legal industry and the importance of each word in expressing legal opinions…I’d also like to express my gratitude to all the organisers and sponsors that have brought us together to create something really amazing. Thank you!”
Raymond Luk works as a system analyst in a telecommunications firm. Luk joined the hackathon because he has been “looking for opportunities to apply my expertise in system design, analysis and programming in implementation of innovative business ideas.”
Wendy Kwan is a business strategist at forensic.hk, and a technology enthusiast with IoT and open data. She loves to seek out opportunities aiming to advocate for change, be that a community art project with Artsteer or running CSR program; she has participated in many hackathons in the UK and Hong Kong or Australia. “The Global Legal Hackathon has gathered the hearts of many talents in Hong Kong who can think outside the box and swiftly acted upon with admirable efforts. The competition has given us the insights to the legal sector that is seeking for change, democratizing legal information.”
Want to watch the team compete in the finals? Join the Global Legal Hackathon community for an evening of legal innovation on April 21 in New York, New York! (Tickets available for the Global Legal Hackathon Gala & Finals here). And follow the team on Facebook for more updates.
