Legal Design and Ethics in commercial contracts
First, the idea of legal design is to make judicial information, services and products more approachable and understandable via using user-centred design. A more user-centred approach to law is reached by combining design methods as well as the latest innovations in the field of law and technology. The legal design approach is highly interdisciplinary in its nature as it tries to learn from other fields of science and have a dialogue with them in order to find new best practices that can be applied to law.
In my work as a lawyer, I have seen that contracts have become greatly comprehensive and complex. Frequently I have witnessed that lawyers are hesitant in deleting excessive clauses from contracts. Such a process, where clauses are added, or kept safeguarding, for even remote contingencies – but almost never are those clauses deleted – creates more comprehensive contracting which is neither ethical nor sustainable. There is a great need to modify commercial contracting with plain language, visuals and user-centred design to allow sustainable development. I am interested in understanding the impact of legal design in commercial contracting. In order to measure it, one needs to know what precisely is required to be investigated, and which elements need to be monitored and why. Getting some of the various effects of legal design scientifically measured will facilitate its use, as then procedures and decisions can be grounded with quantitative, empirical data. This presentation clarifies that we need law and economics to do the scientific measurement necessary for legal design to be seen as being on the stage of science. In addition, it explains how legal design approach can improve ethics and business sustainability.
Bio
Katri Nousianen – PhD Candidate in Commercial Law, European Master in Law and
Economics (EMLE) LL.M
Katri Nousiainen is a lawyer and professional in legal education. She is conducting pioneering empirical research on impact in Legal Design and Ethics in Commercial Contracts with a twist of Law and Economics. She gives expert legal lectures on various practice areas of Commercial Law, Legal Design and Law & Technology. She is an invited keynote speaker at conferences and seminars across Europe. Currently she is conducting her research at the Harvard Law School, in the Center for Legal Profession (US) and at the University of Cambridge (UK).