ICAIL

In 1987 the first International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law was held in Boston, Massachusetts. The Conference Chair of this inaugural event was Carole D. Hafner, who sadly passed away in 2015. Carole's contribution to the AI and Law community cannot be overstated; she was instrumental in the establishment of the International Association for AI and Law (IAAIL), the ICAIL conference and the AI and Law journal, and she served as IAAIL Secretary/Treasurer for many years. Carole's research contributions on conceptual information retrieval of legal knowledge were presented at the very first ICAIL conference and in later years she developed work on a variety of topics including text analysis, case-based reasoning and ontologies. Carole's research contributions leave a legacy that is still of relevance for today's research in AI and Law. Whilst the community mourns the loss of Carole, it stands proud to be building on the foundations that she established within this research field, both in terms of her research contributions and in terms of the conference itself. To honour Carole, a best paper prize in her name is being awarded at ICAIL 2015.

The fifteenth edition of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law provides a program presenting a wide variety of work to tackle the diverse topics that are manifest in the goal of developing artificial intelligence approaches and applications for the legal domain. The program includes full papers, research abstracts, system demonstrations, tutorials, workshops and a doctoral consortium. Within the program, advances are presented both on topics that are long standing staples of AI and Law research and on emerging topics that have more recently become areas of concern for the field. Theoretical work in the tradition of artificial intelligence research is prominent within the program, but applications to drive forward the transfer of knowledge from the research lab into the field are also a welcome feature of the program. The program contains some events intended to reach out to a variety of communities and audiences; the diverse workshop program includes a multilingual workshop to promote inclusivity of AI and Law researchers from non-English speaking countries, and a doctoral consortium is being held to welcome and encourage student researchers who are new to the field.