Introduction

Despite the discrepancies in understanding Artificial Intelligence (AI), there are certain universal characteristics that these tools and technologies have which makes them useful in almost every field. Considering that humans possess the ability to think, judge, and form intentions, AI fundamentally tries to incorporate this by reacting to stimulus in a way that is comparable to conventional human responses. While following and executing the pre-planned and pre-configured protocols, technology has advanced to become a more complex final product with intelligence like that of humans. This is what gives it real potential to transform justice systems worldwide.

The use of AI in the Indian Judicial System

The Indian judiciary is incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle persistent issues including backlogs in cases and facilitating access to justice. The legal landscape is changing as a result of the recognition of AI’s transformational potential. The Indian judiciary is utilizing AI in a number of ways and is considered an early adopter of AI. The AI tool SUPACE (Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court Efficiency) reads case files, gathers facts, provides pertinent information, and provides precedents to help Supreme Court judges make decisions. It also aids in court administration by allocating tasks and organizing big caseloads. For the assistance of the Courts, documents are translated from the local languages using SUVAS (Supreme Court Vidhi Anuvaad Software). AI transcription has also been implemented which provides the live transcription of the proceedings of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. In addition to this the Punjab & Haryana High Court also placed a question to Chat GPT in order to get a broader view of bail jurisprudence.

The use of AI in the Indian Judicial System is available in detail at : Artificial Intelligence in the Indian Judicial system

The use of AI in the Judicial System around the Globe

The use of AI in the Indian Judicial System is still in an embryonic stage with some developments as has been noted above however there has been a rapid incorporation of AI around the world. The AI interventions in the foreign jurisdictions are the following:

• COMPAS- Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) is an algorithm used to assess recidivism i.e. the tendency of an offender to re commit the offence. This is a risk management tool being used in the US where, the information and the tendencies of recidivism of offenders is analysed to make the parole and sentencing decisions[1].
• HART- The HART (Harm Assessment Risk Tool) is also a tool similar to the abovesaid being used by the UK predict which offenders are most likely to commit crimes again and recommend the level of prison supervision for an offender. The tool uses machine learning technique to help the custody officers in determining whether offenders are at low, moderate, or high risk of committing more crimes and accordingly the decision is made whether a person should be sent for a rehabilitation programme.
• Strategic Subject List (S.S.L.)- The tool was introduced in Chicago wherein AI was used to predict those individuals who are likely to be involved in gun violence. The algorithm was used to create a risk assessment score or S.S.L. and reflect the probability of a person committing the said offence.[2]
• VICTOR- This tool is used in Brazil to assist the Brazilian Supreme Court by conducting a case analysis of the cases that reach the Court. It aims to reduce the burden on the Court as a preliminary analysis is created which can save the valuable time of the Court. It identifies the “issues of general repercussions”. The idea of general repercussion is to make sure that the court hears only cases that are actually important to society at large and to keep out appeals that are just a false attempt by the losing party.[3]

Earlier the practice of the Brazilian Supreme Court included the above said exercise being taken up by the civil servants which consumed a lot of man power and time which is now eliminated by the use of VICTOR.

• PROMETEA- The tool is being used by the judiciary of Argentina and Colombia and serves various purposes. The tool manages the tracks the cases and manages the case. Each and contains several documents out of which the relevant documents are extracted using the said tool. In addition to this it also identifies urgent cases which needs to be adjudicated at the earliest[4].
• Robot Mediator- The first case settled by a robot mediator in Canada in 2019. The robot mediator in the form of application known as Smartsettle resolved the three-month conflict in less than an hour by using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms.[5] This technology is also being used in the England and Wales[6].
• Robot Lawyer- Countries like Russia [7]and China are actively developing AI technologies, including those that can provide legal advice to citizens and aiding the judges. The use case as of now is not to represent the person in a Court but to merely provide legal advice.

Although these use examples demonstrate the variety of ways AI is being applied in justice systems, there are worries about its unrestricted inclusion. This is the reason why the application of AI needs to be carefully planned out with enough safeguards and control systems. A few issues that must be resolved before AI is included into legal systems such as the violation of IPR’s, concerns over accuracy and more.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/us/politics/

[2] https://data.cityofchicago.org/Public-Safety/Strategic-Subject-List-Historical/4aki-r3np/about_data

[3] www.mondaq.com/brazil/constitutional-administrative-law/57864/the-supreme-federal-tribunal-and-the-general-repercussion-requirement#:~:text=The%20concept%20of%20general%20repercussion,party’s%20unwillingness%20to%20accept%20defeat

[4] https://vidhilegalpolicy.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Responsible-AI-in-the-Indian-Justice-System-A-Strategy-Paper.pdf

[5] https://adric.ca/robot-mediator-settles-first-ever-court-case/

[6] https://www.building.co.uk/building-the-future-commission/how-robot-mediators-and-ai-can-help-resolve-construction-disputes/5122026.article

[7] https://www.rbth.com/science-and-tech/327585-free-legal-advice-robolawyer