3 J. High Tech. L. 1 (2004)

handle is hein.journals/jhtl3 and id is 1 raw text is: Extraterritorial Jurisdiction: Can RICO Protect Human Rights? A Computer Analysis of a Semi-Determinate Legal Question Eric Allen Engle' Cite as: 3 J. High Tech. L. 1 (2004) I. USING COMPUTERS TO SIMULATE LEGAL DECISION MAKING The ability of computers to perform complex tasks no longer remains a subject of serious debate. Thus, the question whether computers can model or simulate legal decision-making should be increasingly replaced by the questions: 1) how should computers assist in modelling legal decision-making and 2) what types of legal decisions are scientifically most interesting and useful to model. This article contends that semi-determinate partially solved legal problems represent the most interesting questions susceptible to computer analysis. A computer program accompanying this article demonstrates this proposition, by modeling an as yet undetermined question: whether the civil provisions of the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)2 have extraterritorial affect. As evidence of the general acceptance of computer decision- making ability, consider the development of tests for machine intelligence. This history demonstrates the capacity and limits of machine intelligence and which types of legal problems computer programs analyze most efficiently. Discussion of several of the more significant tests follows. One of the first tests for artificial intelligence (A.I.), proposed by computer pioneer Alan Turing,3 stated that machine intelligence 1. Eric Engle holds a J.D. from St. Louis University, a D.E.A. from Universit6 Paris II (Panth6on-Assass), a second D.E.A. from Universit6 Paris X (Nanterre) and an LL.M.Eur. from the Universitit Bremen. He maintains a personal website at http://www.lexnet.bravepages.com with links to on-line law resources. His other writings can be found either on his web-site, on Lexis/Westlaw or via Google. He is a research fellow at the Center for European Legal Policy at the Universitit Bremen where he teaches courses in United States tort law and international human rights law. The author wishes to thank Metacard Corp. (http://www.metacard.com) and Runtime Revolution Ltd. (http://www.runrev.com) for supporting this project with their fine program. 2. 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-1968 (2000). 3. See The Alan Turing Homepage, at http://www.turing.org.uk/turing (providing information on Alan Turing and his work). (1) Copyright C 2004 Journal of High Technology Law. All Rights Reserved. ISSN 1536-7983

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