Application of Artificial Intelligence in Justice: Foreign and Domestic Experience
On April 12, 2024, an important event took place in the field of justice in Ukraine. The Odesa regional branch of the National School of Judges of Ukraine held an all-Ukrainian seminar for judges of local and appellate courts titled “Application of Artificial Intelligence in Justice: Foreign and Domestic Experience.”
This event became a platform for discussing approaches and strategies for the integration of artificial intelligence in the judicial system, as well as providing an opportunity for Ukrainian judges to familiarize themselves with advanced global practices and exchange experience in this field.
The speakers of the seminar were:
– Viktor Horodovenko – Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Honoured Lawyer of Ukraine, Doctor of Law, Professor;
– Ian Bernaziuk – Judge of the Supreme Court in the Administrative Cassation Court, Doctor of Law, Professor;
– Hennadii Zelenov – Deputy Head of the Department of Analytical and Legal Work of the Office of the Supreme Court, Candidate of Science of Law, Associate Professor.
Mariia Melnyk – Senior Lecturer at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, a Candidate of Science of Law (PhD), a practicing lawyer, and a member of the Ukrainian Bar Association was honored to be invited as a speaker on the seminar where she delivered a presentation titled: “The Use of Artificial Intelligence for the Judicial Reasoning: Exploring Opportunities and Risks.”
Mariia revealed the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in strengthening the work of the judicial system, highlighting how these tools can help judges in their daily activities. The speaker paid considerable attention to analysing the potential limitations of artificial intelligence (such as bias, low-quality training data, “hallucinations” of artificial intelligence, the inability of AI tools to provide persuasive legal analysis and argumentation, etc.).
Mariia emphasized the importance of using AI systems while preserving due respect for the principles of the Rule of Law and Judicial Independence in decision-making processes.
The speaker underscored the significance of eschewing formalism and adopting a non-mechanical approach to legal reasoning in the age of technological advancement. This is an issue that challenged representatives of Western Jurisprudence in the 20th century, but they managed to triumph over it. Similarly, modern Ukrainian scientific and practical legal thought endeavors to overcome this challenge.
A crucially important task for judges is to ensure that the use of AI remains a subsidiary tool and does not lead to the return of a formalistic approach in the process of forming judicial reasoning.
To conclude her speech, Mariia quoted Marla N. Greenstein, who is the Executive Director of the Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct and Secretary of the Board of the Association of Judicial Disciplinary Counsel: “The ethical challenge for us all is to maintain that human strength while adapting to the enormous information revolution that artificial intelligence provides”.
