Justice Trends 2: Automated Justice Get the Gist of the future for technology in justice

Automating Economics

The role of automation in economics is continuing to evolve and is expected to continue to drive change. For instance, as the Internet of Things, distributed renewable energy, and autonomous automobiles converge; the management, power, and movement (respectively) of economic activity is expected to be largely fueled by automation. As a result, the relevance for the future of justice is largely centered on concerns over economic inequality despite an improving global economy.

Economic inequality has been shown to lead to inequalities elsewhere such as in prison populations. Whether economic inequality can be considered just or not, its increase is likely to play a key role in the future of justice and the world. It is already driving much of the motivation for a lawyerless court. An article in Open Democracy UK, raises questions about the move to remove human interaction from courts; the author wonders if applicants using an online system will get the same ‘justice’ as those advised by a human lawyerFootnote 15.

  1. Speaking at the Canada Growth Summit, Mark Carney said increases in artificial intelligence, big data and high-tech machines could create huge inequalities between the high-skilled workers who benefit from the advances and those who are sidelined by them.
  2. The future of global income inequality is likely to be shaped by both convergence forces (rapid growth in emerging countries) and divergence forces (rising inequality within countries). No one knows which of these forces will dominate and whether these evolutions are sustainable.
  3. The World Economic Forum released a report predicting AI, machine learning, and other nascent technologies will spur a so-called "Fourth Industrial Revolution" that replaces 5.1 million jobs by 2020.
  4. U.S. Supreme Court justices are on record stating that emerging technologies will likely be the biggest legal challenge of the next few decades.
  5. Incontestablement, nos villes et communautés, autant leur composition que leur objectif, évoluent. De plus en plus, l'urbanisation et ses dérivés redéfinissent vos vies, la technologie et les compétences numériques jouant un rôle progressivement plus important. [translation] Our cities and communities are undeniably evolving, in both composition and objectives. Urbanization and similar trends are increasingly redefining our lives, with technology and digital skills playing an increasingly significant role in this regard.