Artificial Intelligence, Justice, and Certain Aspects of Right to a Fair Trial

The study constitutes a synthesis of available knowledge on the worldwide implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the judicial process. The authors’ objective is to present this information in a structured way and thereby assess the likelihood and potential risks of AI-assisted and AI-based adjudication. The real-life implementation of AI as a supporting tool for human adjudicators, as a means of aiding the drafting of judicial decisions, and as a machine adjudicator are presented and analysed. The authors then contrast available information on AI adjudication with these forms of AI participation in order to discover whether the basic guarantees of a fair trial could be ensured by AI. They examine AI’s potential effects on the public legitimacy of the courts, on access to justice, on the duration of the judicial process, on the publicity of the trials, on the factors considered while investigating evidence, on potential situations of discrimination or bias, and on the (im)possibility of obtaining reasoned rulings from AI entities, permitting the subjection of their decisions to judicial remedies. The authors conclude that AI is likely to remain just an aid for the human judge in the foreseeable future.