When should a computer decide? Judicial decision-making in the age of automation, algorithms, and generative artificial intelligence

To conduct this inquiry, two key ‘ingredients’ of the judicial decision-making process that exemplify this innately social practice are selected for analysis. The ability to participate in judicial decision-making, and the exercise of judicial discretion, are manifestations of the law as it exists within a wider social context, which shapes and condiLons it.

Contrary to some analysis, the law is not applied through the mechanical selection of ‘correct’ precedents to cut and dried facts. The quotidian world of legal practice shows us that the law and its application are cultivated iteratively through a variety of legal actors. In this sense, it is malleable, contingent on context, and not necessarily computable in AI systems, including in the context of sophisticated Large Language Models.