# Law in Silico: Simulating Legal Society with LLM-Based Agents

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.24442 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.24442/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Social simulation and multi-agent debate, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 12 of its 57 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 Oct 2025.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Social simulation and multi-agent debate](https://mlsanity.com/agents/social-simulation-and-multi-agent-debate/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11432/) (2023)
- [AgentSociety: Large-Scale Simulation of LLM-Driven Generative Agents Advances Understanding of Human Behaviors and Society](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.08691/) (2025)
- [Large Language Models as Urban Residents: An LLM Agent Framework for Personal Mobility Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14744/) (2024)
- [How Well Do LLMs Represent Values Across Cultures? Empirical Analysis of LLM Responses Based on Hofstede Cultural Dimensions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.14805/) (2024)
- [AgentsCourt: Building Judicial Decision-Making Agents with Court Debate Simulation and Legal Knowledge Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.02959/) (2024)
- [Simulating Human-like Daily Activities with Desire-driven Autonomy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06435/) (2024)
- [Multi-Agent Simulator Drives Language Models for Legal Intensive Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.06882/) (2025)
- [LawLuo: A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework for Multi-Round Chinese Legal Consultation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.16252/) (2024)
- [Agents on the Bench: Large Language Model Based Multi Agent Framework for Trustworthy Digital Justice](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18697/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [LLM Agents in Law: Taxonomy, Applications, and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.06216/) (2026)
- [CyberJurors: A Multi-Agent Simulation Task for E-Commerce Disputes Verdict](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.28369/) (2026)
- [LegalWorld: A Life-Cycle Interactive Environment for Legal Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.18728/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Since real-world legal experiments are often costly or infeasible, simulating legal societies with Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems provides an effective alternative for verifying and developing legal theory, as well as supporting legal administration. Large Language Models (LLMs), with their world knowledge and role-playing capabilities, are strong candidates to serve as the foundation for legal society simulation. However, the application of LLMs to simulate legal systems remains underexplored. In this work, we introduce Law in Silico, an LLM-based agent framework for simulating legal scenarios with individual decision-making and institutional mechanisms of legislation, adjudication, and enforcement. Our experiments, which compare simulated crime rates with real-world data, demonstrate that LLM-based agents can largely reproduce macro-level crime trends and provide insights that align with real-world observations. At the same time, micro-level simulations reveal that a well-functioning, transparent, and adaptive legal system offers better protection of the rights of vulnerable individuals.