At the time of writing, 160 AI-integrated systems have been documented as being used or piloted within justice systems across Europe and other participating countries to the European Cyberjustice Network of the Council of Europe.[1] AI systems could present new opportunities and a chance for a better human rights protection and observance of the right to a hearing within a reasonable time if they are appropriately developed and used, for instance in so far as the ECHR standards and case-law are integrated in the AI-facilitated search and analysis or decision-support tools.

While AI systems designed for ancillary administrative tasks pose minimal risk,[2] those directly assisting judicial authorities in researching, interpreting facts, and applying the law to specific cases present significant risks to fair trial rights and related human rights. Administration of justice was among the first public governance sectors for which the Council of Europe addressed the implications of the use of AI systems on human rights, through the publication of its European Ethical Charter on the use of Artificial Intelligence in judicial systems and their environment” (“the Ethical Charter”).[3]

 

 Key AI use cases in this context include:

  • AI-facilitated search, review, analysis and Large-Scale Discovery: AI systems that create a searchable collection of case-law descriptions, legal text and other insights to be shared with legal experts for further analysis and large-scale discovery on high volumes of electronic documents. Examples include search engines with interfaces applied to case law and judicial files.
  • Decision support: Systems that facilitate or automate stages in the decision-making processes. Examples include summarising texts, extracting specific information in application, providing guidelines and benchmark and calculating scales for sentencing and compensation. Fully automated decision-making processes without any human supervision have not been reported in Europe so far.
  • Prediction of judicial outcomes: Systems that learn from large datasets to identify patterns in the data that are consequently used to visualize, simulate or predict new litigation outcomes.
  • Online dispute resolution (ODR): These cover technologies used for the resolution of disputes between parties with limited human intervention. It concerns mainly alternative dispute resolution, but also dispute resolution in the context of courts.
  • AI based judge appointments and case allocation: Systems used to complete or facilitate tasks such as allocating cases to courts and judges and attaching levels of priority. 

Other applications, such as the use of AI for interpretation during hearings or recording, transcription or translation could also challenge elements of the right to a fair trial depending on the circumstances.

 

[1] The Resource Centre on Cyberjustice and AI serves as a publicly accessible focal point for reliable information on AI systems and other cyberjustice tools, aiming at providing a starting point for further examination of their risks and benefits for professionals and end-users. It is monitored by the CEPEJ Artificial Intelligence Board.

[2] Such as anonymisation or pseudonymisation of judicial decisions, documents or data, communication between personnel and the automation of other administrative tasks.

[3] The Ethical Charter, adopted by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) of the Council of Europe, is one of the first regulatory documents on AI that provides a set of principles to be implemented by public and private stakeholders responsible for the design and development of AI tools and services in administration of justice.