Asst. Prof. Dr. Ebru Ibish, Head of the Legal Clinic and a faculty member at the Faculty of Law, International Balkan University (IBU), was awarded the prestigious “Golden Shield” by the Faculty of Law at the University of Kalba, United Arab Emirates.

The award recognizes her outstanding contribution through a scholarly article and insightful recommendations on the integration of Artificial Intelligence into law curricula, presented during a developmental session dedicated to curriculum enhancement and study plan development. The session was held under the theme: “Legal Education at the University of Kalba: Knowledge and Professional Competencies.”

Below is a summarized version of Dr. Ibish’s paper:

Integrating AI into the legal studies program is challenging. Technology is rising, changing, and improving very fast, and finding the mutual path for integrating AI into several courses in the Faculty of Law can be complicated. Starting from this point, I would like to emphasize the vital evolution in legal education, or more precisely, the integration of Artificial Intelligence into several law courses.

Why Integrate AI into Law Courses?

There are important points that have to be mentioned, especially: preparing future lawyers for the digital age (in the scope of the digital age, AI tools are increasingly used for legal research, and nowadays for contract analysis as well), and legal practice skills (AI can allow lawyers to focus on complex legal reasoning). While emphasizing the need to integrate AI into law courses, there is a crucial question of “ethical challenges.” This area is very important because AI raises questions about bias, transparency, and accountability, and that’s why it is crucial to educate future lawyers and the new generation of law students on ethical considerations related to AI use.

What is the importance of AI in the frame of legal studies?

AI plays a significant role in the field of legal studies, particularly in enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and innovation. Its applications range from streamlining legal research and improving time management to supporting decision-making and automating routine tasks. Furthermore, AI helps expand access to legal services, demonstrating its transformative potential in the legal sector. The development of technology affects every profession. Law requires constant research and monitoring of the conditions in society, which, of course, affect the new legal frameworks. Taking this into account, as well as the needs and changes brought by the digital age, it is very clear that there is a need for innovations in the legal sphere and for preparing future lawyers for their profession under the conditions the digital age has brought.

What would be the dilemmas when integrating Artificial Intelligence into legal studies curricula?

This is a very important issue from a legal point of view, as well as the responsibility of professors in creating the academic curriculum. Here, I would like to emphasize once more the importance of ethical challenges. Legal studies and the legal profession require legal logic, comparative analysis of laws and theories, legal research, legal argumentation, and correct interpretation of legal provisions; therefore, we should be careful when integrating Artificial Intelligence into legal education. Students should understand Artificial Intelligence within the framework of academic studies as an auxiliary or practical tool, not as their replacement. From an ethical point of view, this is one of the key things that should be emphasized.

Clinical teaching and AI in the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology?

As a professor coming from the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology in the Faculty of Law, I would like to mention the importance of clinical teaching in legal studies, where I believe that AI would be effective.

1. Forensic Analysis: Applying AI for image recognition (e.g., facial recognition, fingerprint analysis), audio analysis, or digital forensics

2. Interdisciplinary support, especially in the field of medical criminal law

3. Virtual Reality and AI-driven Simulations: procedural scenarios with AI-driven virtual environments

4. Streamlining Case Management: automating administrative tasks such as scheduling hearings, managing case files, etc.

5. Supporting the Decision-Making Process: analyzing case histories and past decisions by using AI algorithms

6. Analyzing motives of crimes, which are crucial from penal and criminological perspectives while analyzing criminal cases, and helping to create a program proposal for the prevention of crime

7. Comparing crime statistics and sharing the crime rates”