JTDL: Countering China's justice tech; A2J Office returns to DOJ + New jobs
Editor’s Note
Last week, I wrote about how the US can compete against China on digital justice technology for the Brookings Institution. My argument is that our failure to invest in our courts and make big, smart bets on justice technology not only damages our rule of law at home, but also abroad. China is already selling its “techno-authoritarian toolkit” to numerous governments, and there is no clear alternative that promotes democracy and human rights.
I hope justice advocates and technologists will build on this new argument to help expand the coalition that supports these issues and drive home their importance. With Attorney General Merrick Garland reinstating the Office of Access to Justice at the DOJ last week, what I propose is just another reason to cement this issue’s place in the federal government with a level of funding commensurate with the task ahead.
At a time when democracy is being attacked here and around the globe, failing to take bold action is an unforced error with drastic consequences. The US must step up and lead.
Best,
Jason
News
I spoke with Jim Sandman, Logan Cornett, and David Udell about the role data can play in improving civil legal aid. (Talk Justice)
The Office to Access to Justice is coming back to the Department of Justice, and there’s a stated interest in technology’s role. (DOJ) A separate report was released on access to justice in the age of Covid. (Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable)
License plate scanners were supposed to bring peace of mind, instead they tore a neighborhood apart. (Washington Post)
How police surveillance exploded in New Orleans. (Lens)
How the FBI crushed a ransomware gang by using the gang’s favorite tactic against it. (Ars Technica) A coordinated bust of dark-web dealers yielded 150 arrests in the US and Europe. (Wall Street Journal)
The aftermath of Carpenter: An empirical study of Fourth Amendment law. (SSRN)
How to prepare the International Criminal Court for our digital future. (OpinioJuris) (h/t Aonghus Kelly)
How the #EndSARS (not the virus) protests against police changed Nigeria’s tech industry. (Rest of World)
Debunking five common myths about the FBI’s homicide data. (Mother Jones)
Events
[Virtual] The Harvard Kennedy School’s symposium on intercultural digital ethics is Nov 3-4. (Harvard)
[Virtual] “Reading 35,000 Parole Hearing Transcripts – A New Direction for Machine Learning in Criminal Law” is Nov 4. (CodeX)
Jobs & Opportunities
A2J Tech is looking to fill dev and PM roles. (A2JT)
[New] The ACLU needs a data scientist. (ACLU)
The ACLU NorCal needs a summer intern. (ACLU)
The Ada Lovelace Institute has multiple openings. (ALI)
The Alan Turing Institute has numerous openings. (ATI)
The Algorithmic Justice League has multiple openings. (AJL)
The Australian National University needs a “humanizing” AI researcher. (ANU)
Boundless has numerous openings. (B) (h/t Chase Hertel)
California’s Office of the Public Defender needs a data researcher. (OPD)
Center for Democracy and Technology has multiple open positions. (CDT) (h/t Alex Givens)
Code for America needs a data consultant. (CfA)
Data & Society needs a director of research (DS)
Duke Law School’s Wilson Center for Science and Justice needs a policy director. (WCSJ)
The Day One Project has numerous openings. (D1P)
EngageMedia needs a digital rights program manager. (EM)
Free Press is looking for a policy counsel. (FP) (h/t Amy Martyn)
Future of Privacy Forum is hiring a law and policy fellow. (FPF)
Georgetown Law needs an ED for its Institute for Tech Law and Policy. (GU)
Hack the Hood needs a director of curriculum and programs. (HtH)
Harvard’s Belfer Center is accepting tech and public purpose fellowship applications. (HBC)
Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center needs an ED. (BKC)
IViR launched a science fiction and information law short story competition. (IViR) (h/t Keith Porcaro)
JustFix is hiring product and UX people. (JF) (h/t Pinky Chan)
Just Tech has numerous openings. (JT) (h/t Legal Tech Jobs)
The Legal Aid Society of New York needs a digital forensics examiner. (NYLAS) (h/t Jerome Greco)
Measures for Justice has multiple positions open. (M4J)
[New] The National Public Defense conference on virtual courts is looking for proposals. (NPD)
The National Institute of Justice has a call for proposals for reducing racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system. (NIJ) (h/t Keith Porcaro)
Notre Dame’s Tech Ethics Lab has a call out for projects. (ND)
Open Mic needs a deputy director. (OM) (h/t Michael Connor)
Paladin has multiple openings. (P) (h/t Felicity Conrad)
The Partnership on AI is hiring for multiple positions. (PAI) (h/t Eleni Manis)
The Philly District Attorney's Office is looking to fill a number of roles, including for a dev. (PDAO)
The Philly city government needs a cloud engineer to support open data teams, including with the DA. (CoP) (h/t Dan Lopez)
ProBonoNet needs a product manager. (PBN)
Schmidt Futures needs a technical fellow. (SF)
SimpleCitizen, an immigration tech company, has engineering, product and sales roles. (SC) (h/t Eleni Manis)
Stand Together Ventures is looking for applicants for a new accelerator class. (STV)
Stanford CodeX needs a computable contracts engineer. (SC)
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project has legal and policy openings. (STOP)
[New] Texas A&M needs a dev for a public defense data portal project. (TAM)
Theory and Principle, a legal software development boutique, needs a PM. (T&P)
UC Berkeley needs a staff attorney for its Technology & Public Policy Clinic. (UCB)
UCLA’s COVID Behind Bars project needs a data scientist. (UCLA) (h/t Hope Johnson)
University of Georgia’s State of the South access to justice conference is accepting proposals. (GSU)
University of Maryland needs a law and tech prof. (UMD) (h/t Matthew Stubenberg)
The University of San Francisco needs a data ethics fellow. (USF)
Upsolve, the bankruptcy platform, is hiring for multiple roles. (UpS)
Uptrust needs a sales director. (UpT)