Richard M. Cornes

Do Judges Need to Be Human? The Implications of Technology for Responsive Judging

Judicial responsiveness requires judges to act from the perspective of conscious legal rationality and also with intuition, empathy and compassion. To what extent will the judicial role change in terms of responsiveness as many aspects of human activity, including aspects of the work of lawyers and judges, are not only augmented, but even taken over entirely by replacement technologies? Such technologies are already reshaping the way the legal profession operates, with implications for judges by virtue of how cases are prepared and presented. In relation to courts, the judicial role is also being augmented, and modified, by technological advances, including the growth of online adjudication. There has even been speculation that the role of the judge not only could be taken online, but as computing techniques become more sophisticated, be fully automated. The role of the human judge though is not merely that of a data processor. To reduce judging to such a definition would be to reject not only the humanity of the judge, but also that of all those who come before them. A better understanding of the essential humanity of the judge will help ensure that technology plays a principled and appropriate role in advancing a responsive justice system. Insights from psychoanalytical thought will aid in that understanding, and in developing the code that drives future applications of artificial intelligence in judicial processes.