War Dogs and the Utility of Auditability in Computational Law

(Click on the above image to watch the video clip)

In the procurement process for ammunition and certain other types of goods there are certain legal requirements that must be adhered to in order to remain compliant with federal and local laws. The Berry Amendment and the Buy American Act provide one such example for how the Defense Logistics Agency must insure that certain goods within a supply chain are made by American manufacturers. Unfortunately, this can be problematic in practice. There are issues, such as reboxing, relabeling the packaging materials for bullets and it is difficult to maintain an adequate level of provenance.

Looking at this use case within the context of the course, creating a framework for tracking documents that is cryptographically secure, auditable, and transparent would greatly improve the efficiency and efficacy of the current framework.

• Actors: Manufacturer, Supplier, Seller, Buyer
• Actions: Procurement
• Data: Provenance of good purchased
• System: Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations

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Reference Materials

The following graphic provides an overview of how the different building blocks of the Computational Law course fit together in practice. In the Computational Law Course, speakers will provide their own unique perspective on what makes Computational Records Management, Computational Contracts, and Blockchain Diversity important and valuable in the current legal and technical state of the art. By combining presentations, discussions, and hands-on sessions, a primary goal of the course is to provide course participants with a playbook for how to leverage the components of Computational Law in order to improve the function of the legal ecosystem.

Computational Records Management

In the Computational Records Management section, the class/speakers/contributors will explore how the concept of provenance can and structured information can be used to improve the accuracy and efficiency of records keeping through thoughtful design and implementation. Students in the Computational Records Management section will have the opportunity to work with identicons and hash values in order to cryptographically insure the integrity of records that pass through the hands of a number of individuals and organizations.

Computational Contracts

In the Computational Contracts section, the class/speakers/contributors will focus on different ways of dynamically constructing legal texts through the use of data and computer code. This discussion will involve an overview of how different types of data can be referenced and linked together in order to automatically provide improved.

Blockchain Diversity

In the Blockchain Diversity section, the class/speakers/contributors will provide an overview of how a variety of different blockchain concepts - including the basics for Smart Legal Contracts and Blockchain for Legal Use Cases. The discussion will specifically address a range of problems and legal risks associated with Self-Sovereign Identity, Token Law, Securities Regulations.