JAR-Association Inaugural Conference on Innovation in Judicial Systems: Human, Cyber and Beyond
On 25 and 26 May 2023, Prof. Eric Tjong Tjin Tai, Dr. Elena Alina Onţanu and Dr. Nishat Hyder-Rahman presented at the JAR-Association Inaugural Conference on Innovation in Judicial Systems: Human, Cyber and Beyond.
On 25 May Eric and Alina were part of a discussion panel they proposed on Geographies of Justice and the Use of AI in Dispute Resolution. Eric and Alina discussed the broader concept of access to justice for various forms of dispute mechanisms and the procedural standards used by private online platforms and their AI integrated systems. In their discussion they were joined by researchers from the University of Amsterdam – Dr. Anna van Duin and Ljubiša Metikoš LL.M. who underlined the need to re-evaluate the traditional procedural standards for delivering procedural justice in the digital environment and how AI could be regulated to uphold due process in court and out-of-court procedures. The researchers from the London School of Economics – Professor Antonio Cordella and Dr. Francesco Gualdi – reflected on what type of AI are we considering for dispute procedures and in court procedures, how we should understand these systems, what happens if the law is inscribed into AI technology, and what the judge or adjudicator needs to be aware of or control when such systems are used.
The same day Alina contributed also to another discussion panel on Enhancing Access to Justice Through a Person-Centred Approach: From ‘Taking Charge’ to ‘Taking Care’ discussing the outcome of European uniform procedures that were developed with the idea of empowering in person litigants, but which remain too complex to provide easy access to justice in a transnational setting where European and national procedural rules intertwine.
On 26 May Alina and Nishat joined the researchers from the Institute of Legal Informatics and Judicial Systems (National Research Centre of Italy) – Marco Velicogna and Dr Rosanna Amato, to Test the Justice Limits in Cross-Border Settings: A Legal, Organisational, and Technical Perspective into Digital Developments and reflect on the organizational, legal and technology elements to enhance and create trust and cooperation in court and out-of-court procedures, as well as between the two. While Rosanna tacked the issue of trust from a human and organizational perspective using various models of judicial cooperation and joint investigation teams in the EU, Alina followed the legal perspective on developing trust between EU national systems and how the regulation of technology solutions is grounded in the national context. Marco took the discussion forward by relying on the e-CODEX digital infrastructure to discuss where are the boundaries in trusting fluid systems. Often technology solutions are easy to develop from a technology perspective but become highly complex from a legal , organizational, and cross-border perspective. Nishat contributed to the discussion with the experience of an on-going project developing an application supporting users in dispute settlement and where results can be confirmed by the public court and/or other national authorities.