Join us for a presentation by Helga Molbaek-Steensig (iCourts Centre, Copenhagen University; European University Institute) on judges’ ad hoc use of Generative AI. This event is co-hosted by Centre for Fundamental Rights, Centre for Digital Governance and Data Science Lab.
The rapid adoption of Generative AI (GenAI) has transformed professional workflows—including those of legal practitioners. Both courts and law firms are developing and adopting bespoke systems to aid in drafting, research, and case management, but many judicial actors have been unwilling to wait for such programs, taking advantage of commercially available GenAI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude and Google Gemini. While these tools offer significant efficiency gains, their use also introduces risks, such as data insecurity, biases, and plausible but false outputs known as ‘hallucinations’. Hundreds of lawyers and litigants have already been sanctioned for citing fabricated cases or laws attributable to AI use.
A less documented, but no less interesting development is the use of such tools by judges, which is the main focus of this talk and the paper it builds on. This paper investigates judges’ ad hoc use of GenAI through two case categories: instances where judges have faced repercussions for undisclosed AI use, and cases where judges have openly integrated GenAI into their rulings, often quoting prompts and responses directly in their decisions and reflecting on AI’s potential in adjudication. The study combines survey data, informal interviews and case analysis of 13 documented judgments and decisions across diverse jurisdictions where GenAI has been consulted; focusing on the role played by the tools, the judges’ prompt engineering and the known strengths and vulnerabilities of each of the models accessed. The study therefore provides a unique insight which is unlikely to be replicated as bespoke systems become commonplace, of judges’ individual choices and reflections on using GenAI without having been urged to do so organizationally.
Speaker
Helga Molbæk-Steensig is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the iCourts Centre at Copenhagen University where she leads the ADJUST project which investigates the use of Artificial Intelligence(AI) and Automated Decision-making in adjudication. She is also a postdoctoral researcher at the European University Institute with the Horizon project ELOQUENCE where she focuses on how to ensure human rights and EU law compatibility of Generative AI in close cooperation with technical work packages in the project. In addition to the interplay between law and AI her research has focused on the European Court of Human Rights, judicial independence, the margin of appreciation, and research methodologies in law appearing in a wide range of volumes and journals including the European Journal of International Law and the Leiden Journal of International Law. She has taught legal philosophy, legal sociology, constitutional law, and human rights law at the University of Copenhagen and delivered guest lectures at universities in Italy and Germany.
