Article contents
Re-engineering justice? Robot judges, computerised courts and (semi) automated legal decision-making
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2019
Abstract
This paper takes a sceptical look at the possibility of advanced computer technology replacing judges. Looking first at the example of alternative dispute resolution, where considerable progress has been made in developing tools to assist parties to come to agreement, attention then shifts to evaluating a number of other algorithmic instruments in a criminal justice context. The possibility of human judges being fully replaced within the courtroom strictu sensu is examined, and the various elements of the judicial role that need to be reproduced are considered. Drawing upon understandings of the legal process as an essentially socially determined activity, the paper sounds a note of caution about the capacity of algorithmic approaches to ever fully penetrate this socio-legal milieu and reproduce the activity of judging, properly understood. Finally, the possibilities and dangers of semi-automated justice are reviewed. The risks of seeing this approach as avoiding the recognised problems of fully automated decision-making are highlighted, and attention is directed towards the problems that remain when an algorithmic frame of reference is admitted into the human process of judging.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The Society of Legal Scholars 2019
Footnotes
Thanks to the two anonymous reviewers, Mary Dobbs, Anthony Behan, Amnon Reichman, Rónán Kennedy, Jennifer Cobbe and Daithí Mac Síthigh for helpful comments, and to the participants in the Bench-QUB Law School Symposium held on 15 June 2018. John Morison would also like to acknowledge support from the ESRC award ref ES/I032630/1 and Adam Harkens thanks the Leverhulme Interdisciplinary Network on Cybersecurity (LINCS) which provided support for his PhD studies.
References
1 Following the Report on the Future of Work Commission (2017), available at http://www.futureofworkcommission.com (last accessed 27 May 2019) we define ICT (information and communication technology) in this context broadly to include robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, the internet, big data analysis, the internet of things, digital technologies; combining and applying these technologies in diverse ways; and also to the collection of techniques, skills, processes and knowledge used by humans in relation to these technologies.
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25 Unitelkaar.nl has been developed as a successor to the pioneering Rechtwijzer system. See further https://uitelkaar.nl.
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36 Indeed, a report by the Online Dispute Resolution Advisory Group states that while they envision AI carrying out various tasks in the future, such as legal diagnosis, facilitation of negotiation without direct human involvement, and acting as ‘intelligent assistants’ for judges, at no point is it proposed these same judges be replaced – meaning the final binding resolutions and decisions remain in human hands: Online Dispute Resolution for Low Value Civil Claims (Civil Justice Council, 2015), available at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Online-Dispute-Resolution-Final-Web-Version1.pdf, pp 24–25.
37 For a useful general overview see Giuffrida, I et al. ‘A legal perspective on the trials and tribulations of AI: how artificial intelligence, the internet of things, smart contracts, and other technologies will affect the law’ (2018) 68 Case Western Reserve Law Review 747Google Scholar.
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39 Shapiro, above n 32, p 1.
40 Lord Justice Briggs Civil Courts Structure Review: Final Report, at Judiciary of England and Wales (July 2016), available at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/civil-courts-structure-review-final-report-jul-16-final-1.pdf.
41 The requirement for office is stated at https://www.trafficpenaltytribunal.gov.uk/our-adjudicators/.
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78 On issues of transparency generally in AI, and the regulatory challenges that this throws up, see C Reed ‘How should we regulate AI?’ (2008) Phil Trans R Soc A 376 and House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence 2018 report AI in the UK: Ready, Willing and Able? Report of Session 2017–19 (published 16 April 2017) HL Paper 100, available at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldai/100/100.pdf.
79 See further Sourdin, T and Cornes, R ‘Do judges need to be human? The implications of technology for responsive judging’ in Sourdin, T and Zariski, A (eds) The Responsive Judge. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, Vol 67 (Singapore: Springer, 2018)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and T Sourdin ‘Judge v robot? Artificial intelligence and judicial decision making’ (2018 forthcoming) U New South Wales Law J 41(4).
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85 Durham Constabulary, above n 11, p 79.
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88 Durham Constabulary above n 45.
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90 While a speculative prospect, triage in this sense would refer to a situation where applications to the court are assessed algorithmically based on previous jurisprudence, in order to determine the likely outcome of the case, and are therefore sorted appropriately (reject or accept) prior to human examination: see https://www.legaltechdesign.com/LegalDesignToolbox/product-typology/triage/ (last accessed 27 May 2019). Alternatively, it could allow applicants to submit application details for analysis and be provided automatically with advice on next steps and likely outcomes. For further information on similar existing technologies, see information on Joshua Browder's DoNotPay app at J Porter ‘Robot lawyer donotpay now lets you ‘sue anyone’ via an app’ (2018) The Verge, available at https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/10/17959874/donotpay-do-not-pay-robot-lawyer-ios-app-joshua-browder (last accessed 27 May 2019).
91 For a fuller account of this see L Edwards and M Veale ‘Slave to the algorithm? Why a “right to an explanation” is probably not the remedy you are looking for’ (2017) 16 Duke Law & Technology Review 18; Data Protection Act 2018, s 14; Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (GDPR), Art 22.
92 GDPR, Art 22(3). See also Art 9(2)(e) and recitals 20 and 52.
93 See further Y Mehozay and E Fisher ‘The epistemology of algorithmic risk assessment and the path towards a non-penology penology’ (2018) Punishment & Society (https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474518802336).
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95 Ibid; Elden, S ‘Plague, panopticon, police’ (2003) 3 Surveillance and Society 240Google Scholar.
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97 Krasmann, S ‘Imagining Foucault: on the digital subject and “visual citizenship”’ (2017) 23 Foucault Studies 10CrossRefGoogle Scholar at 18.
98 Northpointe, see above n 47, pp 22, 49; Durham Constabulary, see above, n 45.
99 R Binns et al ‘It's reducing a human being to a percentage: perceptions of justice in algorithmic decisions’ (2018), available at https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.10408.
100 Golder and Fitzpatrick, above n 11.
101 Golder and Fitzpatrick, above n 11.
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