Legal Contexts and AI
A helpful tool or an overwhelming experience? ….Unsplash
Artificial Intelligence is a rapidly growing technology that already has a significant impact on a variety of different fields, including the legal field. Law tends to be seen as a field that is rather non-technological, if not old-fashioned.[i]Australian Financial Review, in its article about the growth of online legal services, included a photograph of a good, well-known barrister’s wig, sitting adjacent to a shelf of bound copies of the Australian Law Reports.[ii] Nevertheless, new technologies keep progressing, and AI is not the exception. It is already starting to be utilised to enhance efficiency or assist with research. It is not just professionals who are using it; students have joined in too. While AI appears to be overwhelming for many, it will continue to have an impact on the legal profession. Therefore, legal professionals need to face it and effectively approach its challenges.
What is AI?
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has defined Artificial Intelligence as a ‘machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physician or virtual environments’.[iii] In summary, it is a technology that is supposed to mimic human intelligence in the way it approaches data and data-related tasks. It is no wonder that it has taken the world by storm. At first glance, it seems to make a lot of tasks easier. Nevertheless, Justice Kunc described the use and regulation of AI as something that will be one of the major issues.[iv]
There have already been attempts to address the impact and challenges of AI, such as AI Decision-Making and the Courts: A Guide for Judges, Tribunal Members and Court Administrators, which presents a brief overview of a variety of AI and automated decision-making tools to direct the courts and tribunals on how and if to utilise these technologies.[v] One of the concerns is that there are tasks for which AI is simply painfully inadequate, such as research due to AI’s tendency to generate non-existent sources.[vi] Not to mention legal analysis because chatbots cannot produce the same kind of convincing reasoning as a human mind does.[vii] Hence, when it comes to assessing the perceived pros and cons of this technology, it is important to carefully consider how it may affect both education and practice.
AI and Education
One of the major issues to address is the impact of Artificial Intelligence on law schools. After all, students attend university to gain the knowledge that will later allow them to be legal practitioners who understand the law well and can advise their clients. AI introduces a whole new set of challenges regarding assessments and whether students actually learn. Recent research found that AI models can now perform at an A+ level on some law school final exams.[viii] This information in itself forces law tutors to determine how much of a threat AI cheating poses and to assess AI’s abilities to mimic high-quality human performance.[ix] Most law students are familiarised with rules surrounding AI in their very first year of studies, and they are encouraged to behave with academic integrity. Thus, one of the most serious challenges that AI poses in the context of legal education is that of increasing the possibilities of dishonesty as students may feel tempted to submit work that is not their own. Furthermore, another study found that the current GenAI models are comparatively less capable when it comes to university-level exams, in the specific case of Criminal Law exams. It was found that a considerable weakness of AI-generated answers was the lack of sophisticated critical legal analysis, despite the models demonstrating a stronger capacity for critical analysis in short-answer and short essay questions.[x] The reason for that was determined to be the level of complexity that is expected in real-world legal scenarios.[xi] Based on this, it can be concluded that AI in education poses not only a risk of academic dishonesty, but also a risk of students not developing nuanced and complex legal analysis skills if they are too reliant on AI. One may argue that law schools should find a way to make sure that their students can ethically engage with AI, as being familiar with new technologies can improve their career prospects.[xii] Nevertheless, the challenges that AI creates in terms of originality and acquiring adequate legal knowledge are incredibly concerning. People seek a lawyer’s advice for matters of great importance to them. Therefore, universities should make sure that they do their due diligence in making sure that they educate reliable and trustworthy legal practitioners on whom the community can depend.
AI and the Courts
Beyond universities, Artificial Intelligence has affected the legal practice itself. Technological advancements have always influenced the legal profession in some way. For example, successive communications technologies have influenced communicating with clients and other parties of interest.[xiii] Case management software has increased in sophistication and automation.[xiv] The development of deep learning systems and the rapid increase in data collection may lead to an argument that AI may be incorporated into the judicial process in some form.[xv] This raises questions about the factors that are allowed to play a part in decisions with significant implications for both individual people and society.[xvi] No machine yet has developed the capacity to weigh different arguments and engage in an active intellectual process that a human mind does.[xvii] On the one hand, one may argue that using some kind of automated models in the justice system may decrease the risk of potential biases; however, ensuring that important decisions affecting individual rights and freedoms are made by humans will include human values and emotions such as mercy and compassion.[xviii] On top of that, it is important to note that machines operate according to the rules under which they have been programmed.[xix] It is still an early stage for them, where decisions on the use of artificial intelligence in legal practice will significantly impact how these tools are constructed.[xx] Thus, it will not be possible to eradicate all human issues in the justice system, such as lack of access or inequalities with the use of AI or similar technologies.
Artificial Intelligence is a quickly developing technology that already has a significant impact on society, and the legal profession is no exception. Despite law being perceived as an old-fashioned discipline, it has already been affected by various technological inventions, including AI. What is the future of AI in law? Time will tell. It may turn out that it will be important for legal professionals to take advantage of some of the benefits offered by it. Nevertheless, it will be crucial to effectively approach the challenges that it poses and to be mindful that it cannot operate the same as a human mind. Therefore, while trying to utilise Artificial Intelligence as well as it can be, it is important to remember that humans tend to overestimate AI advances and underestimate the complexity of their own intelligence.[xxi]
References
[i] Lydia Bennett Moses, ’Artificial Intelligence in the Courts, Legal Academia and Legal Practice’ (2017) 91(7) Australian Law Journal, 561, 561.
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Melissa Perry, Benjamin Durkin and Charlotte Breznik, ‚’From Skahespeare to AI: The Law and Evolving Technologies’ (2024) 98(4) Australian Law Journal, 272, 272.
[iv] Francois Kunc, ’Current Issues’ (2024) 98(11) Australian Law Journal, 165, 165.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Ibid, 166.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Andrew Blair-Stanek et al, ’AI Gets Its First Law School A+’ (2025) University of Maryland Legal Studies Research paper.
[ix] Ibid.
[x] Armin Alimardani, ’Generative artificial intelligence vs. Law students: an empirical study on law criminal law exam performance’ (2024) 17(2) Law, Innovation and Technology, 777.
[xi] Ibid.
[xii] Ibid.
[xiii] Melissa Perry, Benjamin Durkin and Charlotte Breznik, ‚’From Skahespeare to AI: The Law and Evolving Technologies’ (2024) 98(4) Australian Law Journal, 272, 272.
[xiv] Ibid.
[xv] Ilana Bolingford, ’Is Australia Ready for AI on the Bench?’ (2020) 30(1) Journal of Judicial Administration, 3.
[xvi] Lydia Bennett Moses, ’Artificial Intelligence in the Courts, Legal Academia and Legal Practice’ (2017) 91(7) Australian Law Journal, 561.
[xvii] Melissa Perry, Benjamin Durkin and Charlotte Breznik, ‚’From Skahespeare to AI: The Law and Evolving Technologies’ (2024) 98(4) Australian Law Journal, 272.
[xviii] Melissa Perry, Benjamin Durkin and Charlotte Breznik, ‚’From Skahespeare to AI: The Law and Evolving Technologies’ (2024) 98(4) Australian Law Journal, 272.
[xix] Ibid.
[xx] Ibid.
[xxi] Tania, Sourdin Replacing, Supporting or Enhancing Judges? Judge AI Considerations for the Future’ (2024) 98(9) Australian Law Journal 698.