Benjamin Alarie (born 1977) is a Canadian

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

, law professor, and entrepreneur. He serves as Professor at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

, where he also holds the Osler Chair in Business Law. He is an author of many publications in the domain of taxation and constitutional law with respect to issues of taxation and fiscal federalism. Alarie is co-founder and CEO of Blue J, a legal software company based in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada.

Education

Benjamin Alarie attended

Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a Public university, public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo, Brantford, Ontario, Brantford and Milton, Ontario, Milton. The ...

, a

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university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, 1815 battle where Napoleon's French army was defeated by Anglo-allied and Prussian forces * Waterloo, Belgium Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Australia * Waterloo, New South Wale ...

, where he received his B.A. in 1999. In 1999, Alarie entered the

, where he was a junior fellow at

Massey College Massey College is the postgraduate University of Toronto#Colleges, college of the University of Toronto located at the University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The college was established, built and ...

. In 2002, he graduated from the University of Toronto with an M.A in economics and a J.D. with honours. Continuing his graduate studies at

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

, he received his

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is a postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in another subject. In many jurisdi ...

(LL.M.) in 2003.

Career

Law practice and academic career

Alarie's research and academic interests include taxation law, judicial decision-making and practical use of artificial intelligence in the field of jurisprudence. In 2003, Alarie began his legal career as a law clerk for Madam Justice Louise Arbour at the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

. In 2004, Alarie joined the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law as a full-time professor. He was awarded the Alan Mewett QC Prize for excellence in teaching by the law school's graduating class of 2009. Alarie is an affiliated faculty member of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Schwartz Reisman Institute. He is a coauthor of several editions of a textbook on tax law, ''Canadian Income Tax Law''. He coined the term “ legal singularity” in 2016 and is co-author of the peer-reviewed book, ''The Legal Singularity: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Law Radically Better'' (University of Toronto Press, 2023).

Blue J

In 2015, Alarie co-founded (along with Brett Janssen, Anthony Niblett and Albert Yoon) Blue J, a Toronto-based legal tech startup company specializing in using artificial intelligence for legal research and analysis. According to a number of sources, the company's software uses AI and machine learning algorithms to assist with legal research by analyzing large amounts of data to predict a court's likely verdict in various kinds of legal cases. The company's AI software program was used in 2018 in a pilot program organized by The Department of Justice in Canada and has subsequently been adopted. The

Canada Revenue Agency The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA; ; ) is the revenue service of the Government of Canada, Canadian federal government, and most Provinces and territories of Canada, provincial and territorial governments. The CRA collects Taxation in Canada, taxes, ...

has also adopted Blue J's software.

Notable publications

*Benjamin Alarie, Anthony Niblett, Albert H Yoon, "How artificial intelligence will affect the practice of law" *Benjamin Alarie, Anthony Niblett, Albert H Yoon, "Law in the future" *Benjamin Alarie, "The path of the law: Towards legal singularity" * * *Benjamin Alarie, "Turning Standards into Rules Part 1: Using Machine Learning to Predict Tax Outcomes" *Benjamin Alarie, "Turning Standards into Rules Part 2: How Do Financial Risk Factors Affect Debt vs. Equity Determinations?" *Benjamin Alarie, "Turning Standards into Rules—Part 3: Behavioral Control Factors in Employee vs. Independent Contractor Decisions" *Benjamin Alarie, "Turning Standards into Rules Part 4: Machine Learning and Economic Substance" *Benjamin Alarie, "Turning Standards into Rules—Part 5: Weighing the Factors in Capital Gains vs. Ordinary Income Decisions" *Benjamin Alarie, "The Path of the Law: Toward Legal Singularity" *Benjamin Alarie and David Duff, "The Legacy of UK Tax Concepts in Canadian Income Tax Law"

008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * "008", a fictional 00 Agent In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and the derived films, the 00 Section of MI6 is considered the secret service's elite. A 00 (pronounced "Double O") is a field agent who ho ...

''British Tax Review'' 228. *Benjamin Alarie, "Mutual Misunderstanding in Contract" (2009) 46(4) ''American Business Law Journal'' 531. *Benjamin Alarie and Andrew James Green, "The Reasonable Justice: An Empirical Analysis of Justice Frank Iacobucci's Career on the Supreme Court of Canada" (2007) 57 ''University of Toronto Law Journal'' 195. *Benjamin Alarie and Andrew James Green, "Policy Preference Change and Appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada" (2009) 47(1) ''Osgoode Hall Law Journal''

References

External links

Benjamin Alarie on Google Scholar

Profile in Toronto Life magazine

Benjamin Alarie profile
at

SSRN profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alarie, Benjamin 1977 births Living people Canadian legal scholars People from Kitchener, Ontario University of Toronto alumni University of Toronto Faculty of Law alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Wilfrid Laurier University alumni Yale Law School alumni