An artificial intelligence system has been developed that can correctly predict the outcome of human rights cases.The new AI system could help judges and lawyers identify cases of human rights violations before they reach court.
Researchers fed the system information on 584 cases relating to Articles 3, 6 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights , and asked it to label each case either as a “violation” or a “non-violation”.
By automatically analysing the case text using a machine learning algorithm, the AI “judge” was able to predict the verdict of cases with 79% accuracy.
It is thought that the system, developed by researchers at University College London, the University of Sheffield and the University of Pennsylvania, could one day help law firms choose which human rights cases to pursue.
We don’t see AI replacing judges or lawyers, but we think they’d find it useful for rapidly identifying patterns in cases that lead to certain outcomes,” said Dr Nikolaos Aletras, who led the study at UCL Computer Science.
“It could also be a valuable tool for highlighting which cases are most likely to be violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.”
