Publication Details
Title:
AI and Administration of Justice in Ghana.
Details:
Author:
Richard Obeng Mensah,Karen Osam Delali A.Gawu
Abstract
In a digital age where there is heavy reliance on technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), taking over diverse industries, including healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture and finance. The legal profession and justice administration are not exempt from the influence of AI. A number of legal software which have been developed over the years affect aspects of the work of legal practitioners and judges. The emergence of AI in the field of law has been attributed to the increasing workload in judicial systems in various jurisdictions. This has resulted in the need for automation to accelerate judicial processes and ensure timely resolution of conflicts. AI has proven to be useful to the legal profession and justice administration through the reduction of the large volumes of information which lawyers previously had to deal with. The growing relevance of AI to law has occasioned the present debate as to whether AI is the future of the legal profession and whether there will come a time when AI completely replaces lawyers and judges. Focusing on Ghana, this paper argues that many revolutionary advancements in technology are not substitutes for existing processes in justice administration. It is further argued that automation cannot serve as a substitute for legal practitioners and judges since there exist relatively unstructured tasks which require human interaction and interpersonal skills, qualities which robots cannot fully exhibit. This paper takes the view that the role of AI in the legal profession is to enhance justice administration and not to serve as a replacement for lawyers and judges.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Ghana and Justice Administration