Legal Research in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

In Tomorrow’s Lawyers, Richard Susskind alerts us to the waves of change aff ecting the legal profession — ‘[l]egal institutions and lawyers are at a crossroads … and are poised to change more radically over the next two decades than they have over the last two centuries’. He warns that ‘[i]f you are a young lawyer, this revolution will happen on your watch’. The focus of this article is on legal research. It examines the main changes taking place in the legal landscape and identifi es concerns and perspectives that unexpectedly emerged during interviews with 15 judges, publishers, practitioners and librarians. These concerns include the pressure on traditional modes of law reporting, and the extent to which technology is changing the way lawyers locate and process the law. The article poses a more serious question as to whether any of these technical research changes are signifi cant for the ongoing development of the law. The article explores the way the profession as a whole must counter the uncertainty inherent in legal research in this transition era.