Dr. Bernhard Waltl

Software Engineering for Business Information Systems
Chair of Informatics 19
Department of Informatics
Technical University of Munich

Boltzmannstraße 3
D-85748 Garching bei München

Phone: +49 (89) 289 17124

bernhard.waltl@outlook.com

The Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection assigned a feasibility study on the governance of algorithms to a joint GI research group.

Bernhard has been a researcher at the chair for Software Engineering of Business Information Systems (sebis) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) since May 2014. He holds a master's degree in Informatics from TUM. Additionally, he holds a master's degree in Philosophy of Science and Technology, with a specialization on philosophy of science and philosophy of language. In 2017 he visited Stanford University for a research exchange, see profile page.

His research area include semantic analysis of legal texts, network analysis for legal documents, and applied artificial intelligence for the legal domain (e.g., legal reasoning, and smart contracts). Within his research he cooperates with leading legal scientists and practitioners. More detailed information about this cooperation can be found on www.lexalyze.de and www.en.lexalyze.de. Beside several publications on relevant conferences he is in the program comittee of the international legal informatics symposium (IRIS), and co-organized the scientific workshop series on Legal Data Analysis at Jurix conference on legal informatics. In addition, he is reviewing publications for international conferences on legal informatics, e.g., MWAIL, IRIS, LDA, ASAIL, information systems, e.g., BIS, but also for data mining topics in law journals, e.g., Journal of International Economic Law.

He is interested in applications of semantic software, logic based reasoning, and cognitive computing. Due to his studies and personal interests he is also open to various interdisciplinary topics, e.g., philosophy of science, game theory, decision science, etc. Together with social institutions he voluntarily committed himself to a volunteer-refugee project.

Research Projects

Selected Invited Talks & Presentations

Explainable Artificial Intelligence, March 21^st, 2018, a-i3/Bundesamts für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) Symposium 2018, Bochum
Studie zur Machbarkeit eines Algorithmengesetzes, March 15^th, 2018, Handelsblatt Tagung: Künstliche Intelligenz
From the unstructured document to the structured contract, Webinar Blockchain & Smart Contracts, March 13^th, 2018, WeblawCH
Classifying Legal Norms with Active Machine Learning, Research Colloquium, February 7^th, 2018, Center for Information and Language Processing, LMU, Munich
Computational Methods in Law, February 1^st - 3^rd, 2018, Wissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Universität Heidelberg and Universität Ulm
Explainable Artificial Intelligence and its Role in Discriminative Algorithmic Decision Making, January 23^rd, 2018, Universität des Saarlands, Saarbrücken
Preventing the Next AI Winter in Legal Informatics with Explainable Artificial Intelligence , December 13^th, 2017, Workshop on Legal Data Analysis, Luxembourg
Modeling, Execution and Analysis of Formalized Legal Norms in Model Based Decision Structures, 8^th December, 2017 Stanford University Logic Group, Stanford
Classifying Legal Norms with Active Machine Learning, Research Colloquium, November 29^th, 2017, Language Technology Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
The Smart Workspace: What can technology do for lawyers?, Thomson Reuters CodeX Summit 2017, November 17^th, 2017, Stanford University
Potential and Challenges of Legal Technology: An Illustrative and Central European Perspective, Research Colloquium of the European University of St. Petersburg, 4^th September, 2017, see Link
Visualisierung und Datenanalyse für rechtliche Prüfprozesse, Würzburg, Gastvorlesung, Medien- und Computerstrafrecht (Internetstrafrecht), 11^th Juli, 2017
Computergestützte Textanalyse zur Unterstützung juristischer Arbeitsabläufe, Brown Bag - LegalTech @ Weblaw CH, 5^th July, 2017
Lexia: Tool-supported Collaborative Legal Data Science, Forschungskolloquium der Universität Zürich, Zentrum für Rechtsetzungslehre, 19^th June 2017, see Link
Classifying Sentences and Legal Documents: An Integrated Hybrid Approach, Multi-Lingual Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Law, ICAIL, London, 12^thJune, 2017
Modeling, Execution and Analysis of Formalized Legal Norms in Model Based Decision Structures, AICOL Workshop, ICAIL, London, 12^thJune, 2017
Classifying Norms and Documents: An Integrated Approach using Rules and Active Machine Learning, Gesellschaft für Informatik, FG Rechtsinformatik, 17^th May, 2017
LegalTech - Revolution des Rechts bzw. Rechtsmarkts durch IT?, Round-Table Chair at IRIS2017, 24^th February, 2017, see Report
A Data Science Environment for Semantic Analysis of German Legal Texts (also available as Podcast), in: Jusletter IT Flash 7^th December, 2016
Legal Data Science for Tool-supported Collaborative Design of Models from Normative Texts, Brünn, Cyberspace 2016, 26^th November, 2016
Computer-gestützte Analyse des Bedeutungswandels rechtlicher Begriffe, Wien, Digital2016 Workshop on LegalFraming, 23^rd November, 2016
Applying Artificial Intelligence in Contracts and Contract Management, München, IACCM German Board Member Meeting, 4^th October, 2016
Die Zukunft des Rechts – Digitalisierung und LegalTech als Chance für Wissenschaft und Praxis; Göttingen, Gastvorlesung Rechtssoziologie, 21^st June 2016
Databases & Visualizations; Convergence versus Divergence? Network Analysis of International Law, Geneva, Graduate Institute & World Trade Institute, 19^thand 20^th May 2016

Publications (peer-reviewed, in reverse chronological order)

Working Paper
Blockchain and Smart Contracts: What is at stake for the legal sector (Bernhard Waltl with C. Sillaber, U. Gallersdörfer, and F. Matthes) A Process Model for Smart Contract Engineering (Bernhard Waltl with C. Sillaber, M. Felderer, and U. Gallersdörfer)
2018
[Wa18c]	Waltl, B.; Bonczek, G.; Scepankova, E.; Matthes, F.: Semantic Types of Legal Norms in German Laws: Classification and Analysis Using Local Linear Explanations, Artificial Intelligence and Law, 2018
[Wa18b]	Waltl, B.; Bonczek, G.; Matthes, F.: Rule-based Information Extraction: Advantages, Limitations, and Perspectives, IRIS: Internationales Rechtsinformatik Symposium, Salzburg, Austria, 2018
[Wa18a]	Waltl, B.; Vogl, R.: Explainable Artificial Intelligence – the New Frontier in Legal Informatics, in: Jusletter IT 22. Februar 2018
[Gl18a]	Glaser, I.; Waltl, B.; Matthes, F.: Named Entity Recognition, Extraction, and Linking in German Legal Contracts, IRIS: Internationales Rechtsinformatik Symposium, Salzburg, Austria, 2018 (nominated for LexisNexis best paper award)
2017
[Wa17f]	Waltl, B.; Reschenhofer, T.; Matthes, F.: Modeling, Execution and Analysis of Formalized Legal Norms in Model Based Decision Structures, AICOL Workshop - Artificial Intelligence and the Complexity of Legal Systems, London, 2017 (to appear in 2018)
[Wa17e]	Waltl, B.; Muhr, J.; Glaser, I.; Bonczek, G.; Scepankova, S.; Matthes, F.:Classifying Legal Norms with Active Machine Learning, Jurix: International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 2017
[Wa17d]	Bernhard Waltl / Jörg Landthaler / Florian Matthes, Differentiation and Empirical Analysis of Reference Types in Legal Documents, in: Jusletter IT Flash 17. August 2017, Full Paper
[Si17]	Sillaber, C.; Waltl, B.: Life Cycle of Smart Contracts in Blockchain Ecosystems, Datenschutz und Datensicherheit-DuD, 2017
[Wa17c]	Waltl, B.; Reschenhofer, T.; Matthes, F.: Process and Tool-support to Collaboratively Formalize Statutory Texts by Executable Models. DEXA - Database and Expert System Applications, Lyon, France, 2017, doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-64471-4_11
[Wa17b]	Waltl, B.; Bonczek, G.; Scepankova, E.; Landthaler, J.; Matthes, F.: Predicting the Outcome of Appeal Decisions in Germany’s Tax Law, International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP): Policy Modeling and Policy Informatics, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2017, doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-64322-9_8
[Wa17 a]	Waltl, B.; Landthaler, J.; Scepankova, E.; Matthes, F.; Geiger, T.; Stocker, C.; Schneider, C.: Automated extraction of semantic information from german legal documents, IRIS: Internationales Rechtsinformatik Symposium, Salzburg, Austria, 2017 (nominated for LexisNexis best paper award)
2016
[Wa16c]	Waltl, B.; Landthaler, J.; Matthes, F.: Differentiation and Empirical Analysis of Reference Types in Legal Documents, Jurix: International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, Sofia Antipolis, France, 2016, Short Paper
[La16c]	Landthaler, J.; Waltl, B.; Holl, P.; Matthes, F.: Extending Full Text Search for Legal Document Collections using Word Embeddings, Jurix: International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, Sofia Antipolis, France, 2016
[Be16]	Beckers, K.; Landthaler, J.; Matthes, F.; Pretschner, A.; Waltl, B.: Data Accountability in Socio-Technical Systems, Working Conference on Exploring Modeling Methods for Systems Analysis and Design: EMMSAD, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2016
[Re16b]	Reschenhofer, T.; Waltl, B.; Gjorgievska, S.; Matthes, F.: A Semantic Meta Model of Spreadsheets. In: Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Istanbul, Turkey, 2016
[Wa16b]	Waltl, B.; Matthes, F.; Waltl, T.; Grass, T.: LEXIA - A Data Science Environment for Semantic Analysis of German Legal Texts, IRIS: Internationales Rechtsinformatik Symposium, Salzburg, Austria, 2016
[La15]	Landthaler, J.; Waltl, B.; Matthes, F.: Unveiling References in Legal Texts - Implicit versus Explicit Network Structures, IRIS: Internationales Rechtsinformatik Symposium, Salzburg, Austria, 2016
[Wa16a]	Waltl, B.; Altamirano, Laura S.; Matthes, F.: Applying Lexical Knowledge to Support Search and Navigation in Legal Databases, IRIS: Internationales Rechtsinformatik Symposium, Salzburg, Austria, 2016
2015
[Wa15d]	Waltl, B.; Zec, M.; Matthes, F.: LEXIA: A Data Science Environment for Legal Texts, Jurix: International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, Braga, Portugal, 2015
[Wa15c]	Waltl, B.; Matthes, F.: Supporting the Legal Subsumption Process- Determination of Concreteness and Abstractness in German Laws using Lexical Knowledge, Proceedings of ICAIL Multilingual Workshop on AI & Law 2015, San Diego, USA
[Wa15b]	Waltl, B.; Reschenhofer, T.; Matthes, F.: Data Governance on EA Information Assets: Logical Reasoning for Derived Data. 10th Trends in Enterprise Architecture Research Workshop (TEAR), Stockholm, Sweden, 2015.
[Wa15 a]	Waltl, B.; Matthes, F.: Comparison of Law Texts: An Analysis of German and Austrian Legislation regarding Linguistic and Structural Metrics, IRIS: Internationales Rechtsinformatik Symposium, Salzburg, Austria, 2015
2014
[Wa14c]	Waltl, B.; Matthes, F.: Towards Measures of Complexity: Applying Structural and Linguistic Metrics to German Laws, Jurix: International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, Krakow, Poland, 2014
[Wa14b]	Waltl, B.; Schneider, A. W.; Matthes, F.: Deriving and Modelling Compliance Requirements from Legal Audits, EICAR: Trust and Transparency in IT Security, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2014
Master's Theses
[Wa14]	Waltl, B.: A system theoretical perspective of IT audits in the financial sector Master's Thesis: Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany, 2014.
[Wa13]	Waltl, B.: Beschreibung, Modellierung und interdisziplinäre Analogien von Komplexität und komplexen Systemen Master's Thesis: Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany, 2013.

Teaching (in reverse chronological order)

Term	Level	Title	Type	Role
WS 17 / 18	Bachelor & Master	LegalTech - Synergien zwischen Rechtstheorie und Software Engineering	Seminar	Advisor
SS 2017	Bachelor & Master	LegalTech - Synergien zwischen Rechtstheorie und Software Engineering	Seminar	Advisor
WS 16 / 17	Bachelor & Master	Synergien zwischen Rechtstheorie und Informatik	Seminar	Advisor
WS 16 / 17	Master	Software Engineering in der industriellen Praxis	Lecture	Advisor
SS 2016	Bachelor & Master	Text Mining und Artificial Intelligence für die Zukunft des Rechts	Seminar	Advisor
WS 15 / 16	Bachelor	Software Engineering für betriebliche Anwendungen	Lecture & Exercise	Advisor
WS 15 / 16	Master	Software Engineering in der industriellen Praxis	Lecture	Advisor
WS 15 / 16	Master	Master Lab Course Web Applications	Lab Course	Advisor
SS 2015	Bachelor & Master	Text Mining und Artificial Intelligence für die Zukunft des Rechts	Seminar	Advisor
WS 14 / 15	Bachelor	Software Engineering für betriebliche Anwendungen	Lecture & Exercise	Advisor
WS 14 / 15	Master	Software Engineering in der industriellen Praxis	Lecture	Advisor
WS 14 / 15	Master	Master Lab Course Web Applications	Lab Course	Advisor
SS 2014	Master	Web Application Engineering	Lecture	Advisor

Dr. Bernhard Waltl

Selected Invited Talks & Presentations

Publications (peer-reviewed, in reverse chronological order)

Teaching (in reverse chronological order)

Advised Student Theses