Seminar Overview:
Professor Norman Siebrasse – a name certainly familiar to any UNB Law graduate – will lead this seminar examining the judicial reasoning style of the Supreme Court of Canada. He led one of the first large-scale, AI-assisted empirical studies of Supreme Court jurisprudence in Canada, systematically mapping how the Court’s reasoning style has shifted over time, with particular focus on the distinction between rules and standards – and why that distinction matters for practising lawyers.
The session will explore how judicial reasoning style affects predictability, litigation risk, evidentiary burdens, and appellate strategy. Using a structured and validated rubric, Professor Siebrasse and his team analyzed decades of Supreme Court decisions across subject areas, identifying measurable trends in doctrinal reasoning over time.
Participants will gain insight into the project’s methodology, including how AI can be deployed to analyze qualitative legal concepts and the strengths and limitations of that approach. The seminar will also consider how similar structured methodologies may be adapted by practitioners, academics, and regulators in their own contexts.
Looking forward, the session will address the future of empirical legal analysis in Canada and the responsible integration of AI into professional legal work.
Professor Siebrasse will also provide an overview of a separate AI drafting and editing tool he is developing – designed to assist lawyers in refining written work while preserving their individual voice.
Seminar Presenter:
Professor Norman Siebrasse, University of New Brunswick, Faculty of Law
Professor Siebrasse joined UNB Law in 1993, after receiving an LLM from the University of Chicago and clerking at the Supreme Court of Canada for the Honourable Madam Justice McLachlin during the 1991-1992 term. His research and writing focuses on patent law, particularly pharmaceutical patent law, patent remedies and the intersection of intellectual property law and commercial law.
To register for this seminar, please click here.
CPD Credit: 1.25 hours