Artificial Intelligence and the Law: Will Judges Run on Punch Cards
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE LAW:
WILL JUDGES RUN ON PUNCH CARDS?
SEDA FABIAN
1. Introduction
This year, the Estonian Ministry of Justice asked its Chief
Data Officer, Ott Velsberg, and his team, to invent a robot judge
capable of deciding disputes of less than 7,000.'In the US, an
algorithm called COMPAS assists judges with criminal sentences
in some states by calculating the likelihood of defendant
recidivism. 2 The UK-based DoNotPay AI-driven chatbot has
already challenged more than 100,000 parking tickets in London
and New York.3 KLEROS is a blockchain-based dispute resolution
program that provides secure, efficient and affordable
arbitration. 4 And, ROSS intelligence - the first artificially
intelligent lawyer, collects the data and analyzes relevant case
law.5
Although regulation and oversight are often seen as the
antithesis of innovation, governments all over the world tend to
embrace developments that advance the ultimate goal of winning
the ongoing jurisdiction rat race in much the same way that the
Delaware effect in the early 20th century spurred governments
to rethinkpolicy approaches vis-a-vis incorporation.' This article
explores the interplay between artificial intelligence and the
judicial system. Are judges that decide cases based on punch-card
algorithms another plot from the popular dystopian television
series Black Mirror, or are such developments an inevitable
part of how we decide cases in the near future? Are our human
requirements for judges replaceable by the capabilities of AI?
Indeed, is it possible that AI-driven adjudication would remove
human prejudices and thus produce more righteous decisions?
1 NIILER, Eric. Can Al Be a Fair Judge in Court? Estonia Thinks So. WIRED
[online]. 2019. [Accessed 26 June 2019]. Available from:
https://www.wired.com/story/can-ai-be-fair-judge-court-estonia-thinks-so/
2 KEHL, Danielle, GUO, Priscilla and KESSLER, Samuel. Algorithms in the
Criminal Justice System: Assessing the Use of Risk Assessments in
Sentencing. Responsive Communities Initiative, Berkman Klein Center for
Internet & Society, Harvard Law School [online]. 2017. p. 11-12. [Accessed
26 June 2019]. Available from:
https://dash.harvard .edu/bitstream/handle/1/33746041/2017-
07_responsivecommunities_2.pdf. See LARSON, Jeff, MATTU, Surya,
KIRCHNER, Lauren and ANGWIN, Julia. How We Analyzed the COMPAS
Recidivism Algorithm. ProPublica [online]. 2016. [Accessed 26 June 2019].
Available from: https://www.propublica.org/article/how-we-analyzed-the-
compas-recidivism-algorithm
3 Niiler, Eric, op. cit.
4 Kleros.io. Kleros.io [online]. [Accessed 26 June 2019]. Available at:
https://kleros.io/about
5 ROSS Intelligence. ROSS Intelligence [online]. [Accessed 26 June 2019].
Available at: https://rossintelligence.com, See WELLER, Chris. The world's
first artificially intelligent lawyer was just hired at a law firm. Business Insider
[online]. 2016. [Accessed 26 June 2019]. Available from:
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-first-artificially-inteligent-lawyer-
gets-hired-2016-5
2. The Role of Human Judges
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become ubiquitous, and with the
development of technology, the law must reflect these sorts of
changes in society. The very first question that should be asked in
the context of the ability to replace human judges with robots is
what roles judges play within our society, what responsibilities
they have, and what this all reveals about the intersection of Al and
jurisprudence.
In the West, we view judges as an integral part of the moral
compass of society. Indeed, as legal scholars Sourdin and Comes
note, judges need to respond rationally and with intuition and
empathy.' According to some, law stabilizes a society; it does not
create it; others expect judges to be social architects.' Regardless,
the role of a judge is a difficult one; in addition to knowledge,
judges must have the ability to be empathetic, supportive, and
interact with all kinds of people compassionately.9 Judges have to
assess evidence and decide on fundamental questions of fact and
law: guilty or innocent? Liable or not? Who is at fault? Who must
pay?
3. Current Uses and Advantages of Al Adjudication
Recent years have shown that, even though the role of judge
seems quintessentially human, and thus not likely to be replaced
by automation, Al in fact has the capacity to do certain aspects of
the job better and more accessible. AI, though not having the
qualities mentioned above, does have the capacity to analyze large
volumes of data, including all relevant case law and evidence, then
replicate a human judge and produce a decision. 12 In the legal
world, Al may be sufficient in legal research or case prediction as
well as in document automation.13
6 ROE, Mark J. Delaware's Competition. Harvard Law Review [online]. 2003.
Vol. 117, p. 588-593. [Accessed 26 June 2019]. Available from:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstractid=354783
7 SOURDIN, Tania and CORNES, Richard. Do Judges Need to Be Human?
The Implications of Technology for Responsive Judging. In : SOURDIN, Tania
and ZARISKI, Archie (ed.), The Responsive Judge. lus Gentium: Comparative
Perspectives on Law and Justice [online]. Singapore : Springer Singapore,
2018. p. 87. [Accessed 20 June 2019]. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326244385_Do JudgesNeed_to_
Be_HumanTheImplications_of_Technology _forResponsive _Judging
8 LAUB, Burton R. The Judge's Role in a Changing Society. Judicature
[online]. 1969. Vol. 53, no. 4, p. 140. [Accessed 26 June 2019]. Available from:
https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/judica53&div
=44&id=&page=&t=1561551698
9 SOURDIN, Tania and CORNES, Richard, op.cit., p. 97.
10ASH, Elliott. Robot judges I Elliott Ash I TEDxZurichSalon [online]. [video].
2019. [Accessed 26 June 2019]. Available from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qlj7xSZKdO
1 TITO, Joel. How Al can improve access to justice. Centre For Public Impact
(CPI) [online]. 2017. [Accessed 26 June 2019]. Available from:
https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/insights/joel-tito-ai-justice
12 ASH, Elliott, op. cit.
13 MILLS, Michael. Artificial Intelligence in Law: The State of Play 2016.
Thomson Reuters Institute [online]. 2016. [Accessed 21 June 2019]. Available
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Artificial Intelligence and the Law: Will Judges Run on Punch Cards
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