Benjamin Alarie

Benjamin Alarie (born 1977) is a Canadian jurist, law professor, and entrepreneur. He serves as Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, 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.^[1][2] Alarie is co-founder and CEO of Blue J,^[3] a legal software company based in Toronto, Canada.^[4][5][6]

Benjamin Alarie
Born	1977 (age 47–48) Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Education	Wilfrid Laurier University (BA) University of Toronto (MA, JD) Yale University (LLM)
Occupation(s)	Lawyer, legal scholar, entrepreneur
Employer	University of Toronto

Education

Benjamin Alarie attended Wilfrid Laurier University, a public university in Waterloo, where he received his B.A. in 1999. In 1999, Alarie entered the University of Toronto, where he was a junior fellow at Massey College. 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, he received his Master of Laws (LL.M.) in 2003.^[7][8][9]

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.^[10][11] In 2003, Alarie began his legal career as a law clerk for Madam Justice Louise Arbour at the Supreme Court of Canada. 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^[10] and the Schwartz Reisman Institute.^[7] He is a coauthor of several editions of a textbook on tax law, Canadian Income Tax Law.^[12][13] 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).^[14]

Blue J

In 2015, Alarie co-founded (along with Brett Janssen, Anthony Niblett and Albert Yoon) Blue J,^[15] a Toronto-based legal tech startup company specializing in using artificial intelligence for legal research and analysis.^[16][17]

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.^[18][19][20] 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 has also adopted Blue J's software.^[21]

Notable publications

• Benjamin Alarie, Anthony Niblett, Albert H Yoon, "How artificial intelligence will affect the practice of law"^[22]
• Benjamin Alarie, Anthony Niblett, Albert H Yoon, "Law in the future"^[23]
• Benjamin Alarie, "The path of the law: Towards legal singularity"^[2]
• Duff, David; Alarie, Benjamin (2006). Canadian Income Tax Law (2nd ed.). LexisNexis. ISBN 978-0-433-45416-8.
• Alarie, Benjamin; Green, Andrew J. (2017). Commitment and Cooperation on High Courts. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-939759-4.
• Benjamin Alarie, "Turning Standards into Rules Part 1: Using Machine Learning to Predict Tax Outcomes" ^[24]
• Benjamin Alarie, "Turning Standards into Rules Part 2: How Do Financial Risk Factors Affect Debt vs. Equity Determinations?" ^[25]
• Benjamin Alarie, "Turning Standards into Rules—Part 3: Behavioral Control Factors in Employee vs. Independent Contractor Decisions" ^[26]
• Benjamin Alarie, "Turning Standards into Rules Part 4: Machine Learning and Economic Substance" ^[27]
• Benjamin Alarie, "Turning Standards into Rules—Part 5: Weighing the Factors in Capital Gains vs. Ordinary Income Decisions" ^[28]
• Benjamin Alarie, "The Path of the Law: Toward Legal Singularity" ^[29]
• Benjamin Alarie and David Duff, "The Legacy of UK Tax Concepts in Canadian Income Tax Law" [2008] British Tax Review 228.^[30]
• Benjamin Alarie, "Mutual Misunderstanding in Contract" (2009) 46(4) American Business Law Journal 531.^[31]
• 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.^[32]
• Benjamin Alarie and Andrew James Green, "Policy Preference Change and Appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada" (2009) 47(1) Osgoode Hall Law Journal ^[33]