Artificial intelligence in law: how does AI affect legal systems and dispute resolution?

A turning point in this regard was certainly the coronavirus pandemic, which accelerated the process of digitization and electronic transformation in the judiciary and in the everyday work of lawyers.

The year 2023 will undoubtedly go down in history as one dominated by the development of AI, while at the same time raising countless questions about the impact of artificial intelligence on our lives, including existing legal systems.

This part of the article discusses the most important aspects of AI's impact on the institutions of the justice system, while in the next part we will examine the possibilities of using artificial intelligence and its effects on the work of lawyers.

AI in the judiciary: distant future or present reality?

The potential applications of artificial intelligence in the judiciary are very broad.

In theory, AI systems could take over the tasks of a court at nearly every level of its operation.

Examples of AI use in the judiciary can be divided into two categories, namely data analysis and support for the judge in carrying out their function (e.g. assigning cases, formal review of procedural documents, generating responses to inquiries from parties to proceedings, automatic transcription and summarization of oral statements), and the replacement of justice system staff and the making of autonomous decisions, such as analyzing evidence, issuing standard orders, or rendering rulings in recurring factual situations.

The second of these possibilities is currently rather distant, though not impossible.

This is because artificial intelligence does not think in the same sense as a human being.

In the current state of this technology, the operation of AI algorithms relies on identifying similarities and requires feeding the system a large amount of data, on the basis of which the AI-based system can generate the relevant information.

In the case of the justice system, this is compounded by the extremely complex matter of legal regulations, which not infrequently cause difficulties in adjudication even for experienced judges.

For this reason, AI-based solutions are currently being implemented in the justice system on a smaller scale.

Among examples of systems using AI in the justice system, it is worth pointing to the Random Case Assignment System, which has been in operation in Poland since 2018 and contributes to upholding the right to a fair trial.

The Polish Ministry of Justice is currently implementing a prison monitoring support system at the penitentiary in Chelm, based on an algorithm for detecting undesirable or dangerous behavior.

The system operates on the basis of video streams supplied by surveillance cameras.

The Polish Ministry of Justice's nearest-term plans also include the TJENI project (Foster Transparency of Judicial Decisions and Enhancing the National Implementation of the ECHR), aimed at creating a central system for publishing and categorizing court rulings 1.

Speaking of our continent, it is also worth mentioning the Estonian project launched in 2019, which aimed to replace judges in civil small-claims cases not exceeding 7,000 euros.

Ultimately the project was suspended, and Estonia limited its implementation of AI to transcribing court hearings and anonymizing court rulings.

It was, however, certainly an important step toward using AI to independently resolve uncomplicated disputes 2.

In the Netherlands, meanwhile, the e-Court system has been successfully used since 2010 to resolve debt-collection cases.

The entire proceeding takes place online on a platform dedicated to this purpose, and the resolution of the case is issued by the system on the basis of applicable regulations and a simulation of judicial reasoning built upon a database of files from past proceedings.

The decisions issued by the AI are, however, subject to review by a judge 3.

At the top of the ranking for AI use in courts, however, China currently stands.

The first artificial intelligence algorithms were already being used by China in court proceedings as early as 2017.

At the end of 2019, it was announced that internet courts in China had resolved their first million cases.

By 2025,

China plans to transition to the so-called fourth generation of smart courts 4.

In Australia, solutions are being implemented that make it possible to impose penalties for traffic offenses using AI 5.

In the United States, in selected states, the COMPAS system (Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions) is used, which assesses the likelihood of reoffending on the basis of datasets.

Owing to controversy over it being deemed discriminatory, in particular toward African Americans, its use has been restricted, and in each case the court must consider how reliable the program's calculation results are 6.

In British Columbia, meanwhile, the Smartsettle ONE tool was created for online dispute resolution.

The program uses algorithms that learn the bidding tactics and priorities of the parties to a dispute and helps work out a settlement 7.

What approach does the European Union take toward AI?

Given the constant development and refinement of AI, it became necessary to regulate this area quickly. On 15 June 2023,

the European Parliament adopted the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), whose main objective was to minimize the risks associated with the use of AI-based systems.

In particular, the AI Act introduced oversight of so-called high-risk systems, which include, among others, AI-based systems used by public administration and law enforcement authorities 8, through measures such as a requirement to assess their impact on citizens' fundamental rights in each instance, and it prohibited the use of AI-based systems for predictive policing.

The act granted the right to lodge a complaint with the national authority for

AI against a decision issued using artificial intelligence algorithms.

The AI Act does not, at present, permit systems using artificial intelligence to make fully autonomous and incontestable decisions.

Will AI revolutionize the justice system?

Despite the many AI-based projects being conducted and implemented in justice systems around the world, the state of work on the development of artificial intelligence is still not advanced enough to be able to replace a judge and other justice system staff.

One of the most advanced studies on introducing a simulation of judicial reasoning into an AI-based system was conducted in 2016 and concerned predicting the rulings of the ECtHR.

The study demonstrated 79% accuracy in predicting ECtHR decisions, which is a fairly positive result given the state of AI development several years ago.

AI-based systems, on the other hand, enjoy great popularity as tools that support and speed up the work of the justice system.

Like any technological advance, AI also carries many legal risks; however, by ensuring appropriate regulations that safeguard in particular the interests of the individual, it may become a breakthrough solution within judicial institutions.

See: https://www.gov.pl/web/sprawiedliwosc/sztuczna-inteligencja-w-sluzbie-wymiaru-sprawiedliwosci-konferencja-ministerstwa-sprawiedliwosci [accessed: 07.07.2023].

See: https://www.just.ee/en/news/estonia-does-not-develop-ai-judge [accessed: 07.07.2023].

H.

Nakad-Weststrate, T.

Jongbloed, H. van der Herik, A.

Salem, Digitally Produced Judgements in Modern Court Proceedings, "International Journal of Digital Society" 2015, no. 4, p. 1102.

See: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3124815/chinas-courts-use-data-analytics-and-blockchain-evidence?module=perpetual_scroll_0 pgtype=article campaign=3124815 [accessed: 07.07.2023].

See: https://brookewintersolicitors.com.au/resources/new-artificial-intelligence-technology-being-introduced-to-traffic-cameras/ (accessed: 16.06.2023).

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMPAS_(software), (accessed: 16.06.2023).

See: https://www.lexisnexis.ca/en-ca/ihc/2019-06/from-estonian-ai-judges-to-robot-mediators-in-canada-uk.page [accessed: 07.07.2023].

See: https://panoptykon.org/akt-o-uslugach-cyfrowych-po-glosowaniu-w-europarlamencie (accessed: 16.06.2023).

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