The Plausibility of Algorithmic Legal Commands

The precision of legal commands - how finely customized are they to the specific circumstances - could be dramatically increased using AI algorithms trained to identify factors relevant to the optimal tailoring of any legal rule. To accomplish such automation of the law, a legal rule must be enacted with explicit statement of its objectives and their relative weight, instructing algorithms what to optimize. This paper examines whether such upfront quantification of a rule's objectives is possible and even desirable.