UNESCO Issues First Global Guidelines to Ensure AI Augments, Not Replaces, Judicial Judgment
SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Ministry of Law and Justice
UNESCO has released the “Guidelines for the Use of AI Systems in Courts and Tribunals,” establishing the first global ethical and operational framework to ensure that Artificial Intelligence (AI) serves justice while upholding the rule of law and fundamental rights. The Guidelines are anchored in a consensus built from consulting over 36,000 judicial operators across 160 countries, ensuring inclusivity and responsiveness to diverse legal traditions.
Core Principles and the Role of AI:
The central mandate is that AI tools must be assistive, not substitutive, and must always remain under meaningful human supervision.
The framework is built on 15 universal principles that apply across the entire AI system’s lifecycle (development, deployment, use).
Key principles include:
Human Rights Protection (e.g., non-discrimination and procedural fairness).
Integrity: Requires Accuracy and reliability, Explainability (making the rationale intelligible to users), and Auditability of all systems.
Governance: Mandates Multi-stakeholder governance and collaboration and Human-centric and participatory design throughout deployment.
Accountability: Ensures Accountability and contestability, meaning mechanisms must exist for affected parties to challenge any AI-influenced decision.
Specific Guidance on Generative AI and Risks:
The guidelines provide specific advice on using large language models (Generative AI), which have been reported globally for issuing judicial documents that contain non-existent rulings.
Judicial organizations should establish usage restrictions to prohibit or restrict external Generative AI tools if their terms of service compromise confidentiality or allow the provider to use sensitive prompts for training.
All AI-generated content used in legal proceedings must be clearly labelled as AI-assisted, and the user (judge/lawyer) must document and verify the entire prompt-and-answer interaction.
India-Specific Relevance
The guidelines provide a critical ethical and operational manual for India’s digital judiciary, led by the e-Courts initiative and the National Informatics Centre (NIC):
Operational Validation: The Supreme Court of India’s SUVAS (Supreme Court Vidhik Anuwad Software) system, which translates legal documents into regional languages, is highlighted as a successful global use case of AI augmenting judicial functions.
Legal Defense and Privacy: The framework’s emphasis on non-discrimination and aligning with privacy laws provides a direct mandate for the Indian judiciary to ensure that no AI system reinforces biases or violates the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA).
Capacity Building: The necessity for specialized training and curriculum revision for judges (as recommended by the guidelines) is crucial for India to upscale its judicial workforce to manage the rapid technological changes.
Policy Relevance
This global framework ensures that technological advancement in judicial efficiency (like the SUVAS system) is pursued responsibly. The UNESCO guidelines provide a direct blueprint for the Indian government to enact legislation that guarantees algorithmic transparency, holds AI deployers accountable, and prevents the erosion of judicial independence and public trust, making it a “living document” critical to the long-term integrity of the legal system.
Follow the full report here: Guidelines for the Use of AI Systems in Courts and Tribunals