Game-playing and understanding decision-making within legal frameworks: the use of computerised simulation

The use of hypothetical factual situations to explore and discuss the way in which ‘real-life’ events and problems occur and develop is an established and valuable predictive method for understanding such events and testing the resolution of problems. In so far as such simulation employs hypothetical events and itineraries of action as a way of arriving at conclusions and solutions, it may be described as a kind of game-playing, and the discussion in this paper first explores the value of simulation exercises in legal and other contexts. Then, taking the example of a simulation based upon a board game involving strategies and risks arising in the legal regulation of business cartels, it reports on the testing of a more powerful computerised version of the board game. Examining the outcome of a large number of moves around the game board, this served as a pilot study for considering the value of further development of such a computational model for possible application in research, educational, and training contexts.