Digital Justice: Lecture Series
The Chinese legal system is seeing increasingly widespread adoption of AI in its judiciary. Chinese courts have come to lead the world in their efforts to deploy automated pattern analysis to monitor judges, standardize decision-making, and observe trends in society. Prof. dr. Stern examines these developments and asks how judicial power is impacted by these developments. Although technology is certainly being used to strengthen social control and boost the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party, examining recent developments in the Chinese courts complicates common portrayals of China as a rising exemplar of digital authoritarianism.
Rachel E. Stern is a Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of Berkely, and currently holds the Pamela P. Fong and Family Distinguished Chair in China Studies. Her research looks at law in Mainland China and Hong Kong, especially the relationship between legal institution building, political space, and professionalization.
Format: online. Register here.
The legal domain is being fundamentally transformed by the introduction of new digital technologies. Digitization promises to promote efficiency, objectivity, and ease of use in adjudication, legal practice, and the administration of justice. At the same time, concerns have been raised about issues such as algorithmic bias, digital illiteracy, and threats to judicial autonomy. The Digital Justice Lecture Series aims to offer a space for critical reflection on the future of law and legal practice.
This series of events is a collaboration between six prominent centers for research at the University of Amsterdam: the Paul Scholten Centre for Jurisprudence (PSC), the research priority area Human(e) AI, the Amsterdam Center on the Legal Professions and Access to Justice (ACLPA), the research initiative Digital Transformation of Decision Making (DTDM), the Amsterdam Centre for Transformative Private Law (ACT), and the Institute for Information Law (IViR).