Artificial Intelligence in the Administration of Justice: Pathways, Promises, and Challenges

Abstract

Digital transformation has opened new possibilities for modernising justice systems, with artificial intelligence emerging as one of the most consequential and complex forces shaping this evolution. AI-driven tools are being deployed across jurisdictions to support legal research, automate documentation, manage caseloads, and facilitate virtual court proceedings, functioning as aids to human judgment rather than substitutes for it. Notable implementations range from case classification systems in France and Brazil's VICTOR platform, to India's comprehensive e-Courts initiative, which encompasses automated case handling, multilingual translation through SUVAS, and AI-assisted legal research via SUPACE. At the international level, UNESCO-led capacity-building efforts have extended judicial training across Latin America and Africa, reinforcing the OECD Recommendation on Access to Justice. Despite these advances, the integration of AI raises substantive concerns: algorithmic bias arising from historically skewed datasets, transparency deficits from opaque black-box models, and the erosion of judicial legitimacy. This paper examines the dual character of AI in the administration of justice its demonstrated potential alongside the ethical, legal, and data-related challenges it introduces and argues that responsible integration requires coordinated policy reform, robust judicial education, and governance frameworks that ensure AI serves as an instrument of justice rather than a source of inequity