AI judges and verdicts via chat app: the brave new world of China's digital courts
AI judges and verdicts via chat app: the brave new world of
China's digital courts
Artificial-intelligence judges,
cyber-courts, and verdicts delivered on chat apps -- welcome to China's brave
new world of justice spotlighted by authorities this week.
China is encouraging digitisation
to streamline case-handling within its sprawling court system using cyberspace
and technologies like blockchain and cloud computing, China's Supreme People's
Court said in a policy paper.
The efforts include a
"mobile court" offered on popular social media platform WeChat that
has already handled more than three million legal cases or other judicial
procedures since its launch in March, according to the Supreme People's Court.
The paper was released this week
as judicial authorities gave journalists a glimpse inside a "cyber
court" -- the country's first -- established in 2017 in the eastern city
of Hangzhou to deal with legal disputes that have a digital aspect.
In a demonstration, authorities
showed how the Hangzhou Internet Court operates, featuring an online interface
with litigants appearing by video chat as an AI judge -- complete with
on-screen avatar -- prompts them to present their cases.
"Does the defendant have any
objection to the nature of the judicial blockchain evidence submitted by the
plaintiff?" the black-robed virtual judge sitting under China's national
emblem asked in a pre-trial meeting.
"No objection," a human
plaintiff answered.
Cases handled at the Hangzhou
court include online trade disputes, copyright cases, and e-commerce product
liability claims. Litigants can register their civil complaints online and
later log on for their court hearing.
Putting simple functions like
that in the hands of the virtual judge helps ease the burden on human justices,
who monitor the proceedings and make the major rulings in each case, officials
said.
The digitisation push is partly
to help courts keep up with a growing caseload created by mobile payments and
e-commerce in China, which has the world's largest number of mobile internet
users at around 850 million.
- Justice served -
"(Concluding cases) at a
faster speed is a kind of justice, because justice delayed is justice
denied," Hangzhou Internet Court Vice President Ni Defeng told AFP.
Ni added that the use of blockchain
technology was particularly useful, helping to streamline and create clearer
records of the legal process.
Since the Hangzhou court's
establishment, China has set up similar chambers in Beijing and the southern
metropolis of Guangzhou.
Together, they have accepted a
total of 118,764 cases, and concluded 88,401, the Supreme People's Court said.
The "mobile court"
option on WeChat -- China's leading social-media messaging platform -- allows
users to complete case filings, hearings, and evidence exchange without
physically appearing in court.
It has been launched in 12
provinces and regions, authorities said.
Courts nationwide are
experimenting with a range of online tools, said Zhou Qiang, chief justice and
president of the Supreme People's Court.
He told a panel on Thursday that
as of October more than 90 percent of China's courts had handled cases online
to some extent.
The legal push also fits with a
nationwide effort championed by President Xi Jinping to make China the world's
technological leader -- with heavy assistance from the government -- a strategy
that has caused US alarm.
This includes the construction of
a massive high-tech surveillance apparatus and an ambitious effort to challenge
US dominance in blockchain, which China could use for everything from issuing
digital money to streamlining government services and tracking Communist Party
loyalty.
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