Advancing sustainable justice through ai-based case law analysis: Ukrainian experience

The innovative approach of `Court in the Palm'service was recognised as one of the top three winners in the Open Data Challenge 2017. The competition was held by the USAID/UK aid project `Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services/TAPAS' of the Eurasia Foundation, contributing to the official launch of the service at the end of 2018. USAID and UK aid, 'Court on the Palm: Analyze Court Rulings in Just a Few Clicks' (Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services/TAPAS, 18 December 2019) <https://tapas.org.ua/all-uk/blogs-uk/sud-na-doloni-analiz-sudovykh-rishen-u-kilka-klikiv/> accessed 4 November 2023.

AI FOR LITIGATION RESEARCH NEEDS

The effective functioning of the judiciary is the basis of the modern rule of law, necessitating Ukraine to fulfil its international obligations following the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU Association Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Ukraine, of the other part of 27 June 2014 <http://data.europa.eu/eli/agree_internation/2014/295/oj> accessed 4 November 2023. and the establishment of a comprehensive Free Trade Area. 'Implementation of a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the European Union: New Opportunities for Business and Investors' (Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Serbia, 16 June 2014) <https://serbia.mfa.gov.ua/news/1663-zaprovadzhennya-pogliblenoji-ta-vseohoplyujuchoji-zoni- vilynoji-torgivli-z-jevropejsykim-sojuzom-novi-mozhlivosti-dlya-biznesu-ta-investoriv> accessed 4 November 2023. Economic development hinges on the stable and proper functioning of judicial and law enforcement agencies, which is crucial for ensuring effective protection of the rights of participants in these relations. Ukrainian society holds hope for the restoration of trust in the judiciary, responsibility for law enforcement and the proper functioning of mechanisms for resolving private law disputes.

Artificial intelligence has the potential for application across various fields of human activity. With a consistent and moderate strategic course, its introduction to data collection and analysis of large amounts of data provides unique opportunities for generalising experiences and predicting future circumstances. In recent years, Ukraine has been gradually introducing some aspects of artificial intelligence, modern information and communication technologies into the circulation of state bodies (e.g., Diia, unified state registers). Dija. Open Data (n 52); 'Unified and State Registers' (Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, 2023) <https://minjust.gov.ua/m/edini-ta-derjavni-reestri> accessed 4 November 2023. A broader introduction of e-justice and communication between state bodies, as well as between bodies of different states, is expected (the program of digitalisation of justice in the EU). Roman Smalyuk and Tetjana Ruda, 'Accessibility, Digitalization, Trust: 3D Ukrainian Justice on the Way to the EU' (Centre of Policy and Legal Reform, 2 December 2022) <https://pravo.org.ua/ blogs/dostupnist-didzhytalizatsiya-dovira-3d-ukrayinskogo-pravosuddya-na-shlyahu-do-yes/> accessed 4 November 2023.

In our opinion, the need to analyse large data sets of the State Register of Court Decisions necessitates the introduction of such mechanisms that will ensure the transparency of the functioning of the justice system and the openness of information about the course of the case and the execution of the court decision. This approach will equip the systems with enhanced functionality, enabling more effective strategies for effective dispute resolution.

The collection and analysis of data from the State Register of Court Decisions should be based on certain objective principles indicators that will be used to assess the judicial activity and behaviour of participants in the process for efficiency, proportionality of costs and time, as well as risks of enforcement of the court decision and/or achievement of the expected result.

Bringing the data of the State Register of Court Decisions to a form suitable for statistical processing will make it possible to conduct an in-depth analysis of court cases, predict various indicators, identify patterns and draw conclusions based on a significant amount of data from court decisions. The fact that the most valuable information in the State Register of Court Decisions is presented as texts of court decisions makes it very difficult to process. It is impossible to process an array of more than 100 million. Court decisions use only human intellectual resources - it takes too much time and resources. Therefore, hardware and software for analysing large data sets will make it possible to study and analyse information from the state register more efficiently and quickly and based on a scientific approach.

By transferring information from a text format to a statistical format through advanced Natural Language Processing algorithms, coupled with a preliminary procedure for labelling texts, researchers, government officials, journalists, and all interested persons can effectively utilise information related to court decisions in their research and decision-making. This approach aims to improve their approach to the functioning of the judicial system.

For this purpose, within the framework of the project, a program was developed to download arrays of open data in text format from the register of court decisions. Additionally, a program was launched to form a raw sample of several thousand cases and store it on the server. Another component of the project involved preparing a program for annotating parts of the court decision texts to enable persons to independently recognise the necessary information in the text in the future and translate it into a (numerical) format suitable for analysis. See. For more information, see Golomozyi and others (n 6).

The study utilised court decisions from the Unified State Register of Court Decisions of Ukraine, which, as of 27 June 2023, contained more than 109 million court decisions. Unified State Register of Court Decisions <https://reyestr.court.gov.ua> accessed 4 November 2023. The Law of Ukraine `On Access to Court Decisions' Law of Ukraine No 3262-IV (n 33). defined the procedure for accessing court decisions to ensure the transparency of general jurisdiction court activities, the predictability of court decisions, and the promotion of uniform application of legislation. Taras Lesyuk, 'The Activities of the Judiciary Will Become More Transparent' Legal Newspaper (Kyiv,

19 January 2005) 5 <https://pravo.org.ua/diyalnist-sudovoyi-vlady-stane-prozorishoyu/> accessed 4 November 2023; 'The Register of Court Decisions Should Work Better' (Centre of Policy and Legal Reform, 3 September 2009) <https://pravo.org.ua/reyestr-sudovyh-rishen-maye-pratsyuvaty-

krashhe/> accessed 4 November 2023. Accordingly, courts of general jurisdiction are obliged to input all court decisions and written dissenting opinions of judges into the Register no later than the next day after their adoption or production of the full text.

It should be noted that court decisions, in accordance with the procedural codes of Ukraine, encompass court rulings, court decisions, resolutions and court orders (Code of Civil Procedure, Article 258 and others). Code of Civil Procedure of Ukraine No 1618-IV of 18 March 2004 (as amended of 4 November 2023) <https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1618-15#Text> accessed 4 November 2023. As a result, the Register stores all court decisions in the case, from the decision to initiate proceedings to the final court decision.

At the same time, in our opinion, the procedural rulings of the court hold primary interest for forecasting and analysing the effectiveness of the judicial system, as they mediate the specific circumstances influencing the case outcome.

To avoid violating Section XVI of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which addresses crimes related to the use of electronic computers, systems, computer networks and telecommunication networks, Criminal Code of Ukraine No 2341-III of 5 April 2001 (as amended of 5 October 2023) <https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2341-14#top> accessed 4 November 2023. the study utilised data sets available on the Unified State Web Portal of Open Data. 'Unified State Register of Court Decisions for 2022' (Open Data Portal, 2022)

<https://data.gov.ua/dataset/ediniy-derzhavniy-reestr-sudovih-rishen-za-2022-rik_763> accessed 4 November 2023. This portal is a project aimed at providing unrestricted access to data received by government agencies, in particular, the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine. Interestingly, this data has been presented in a machine-readable format, allowing for automated data processing by electronic means. However, this potential cannot be realised due to court decisions being stored in a format unsuitable for automated processing.

The decision-selection process involved applying specific search criteria, including the year, type of proceedings (civil, commercial and administrative jurisdiction), and keywords for filtering civil, commercial and administrative jurisdiction. According to the number of proceedings, court decisions were combined into cases, significantly streamlining the data processing. This approach enabled the identification of the specific group of cases for the study.

During the experimental part of the study, the hardware and software complex designed for processing court decisions underwent training. The description of the study's methodology encompasses technical characteristics of the prepared complex, along with criteria and markers for marking information in a court case. This marking became the primary criterion for collecting information and further statistical processing. Comparing trial results with case circumstances provides us with objective data to draw conclusions about the trial opportunities, advantages and disadvantages, terms, and costs. This analysis is a prerequisite for building a successful strategy for effective dispute resolution.

CONCLUSIONS

In the course of the project, ideas on specific components of building trust in the judiciary have been further developed. Based on this, objective recommendations for assessing the quality of the judicial system in the state, as well as algorithms for collecting data on its functioning to strengthen trust in the justice system in society. These recommendations can follow the examples set by counterparts in the EU and the Council of Europe. Establishing indicators for the effective functioning of justice, aided by algorithms for continuous monitoring and data collection, will enable a timely and flexible response to unavoidable changes.

In the future, the obtained data set, suitable for statistical processing, can be utilised to identify patterns and features of court cases, assess the effectiveness of the administration of justice, predict the enforcement of court decisions, and estimate the duration of court cases. Furthermore, it can be instrumental in considering procedural and judicial legislation in the course of further reform. The development and improvement of the judicial system, ensuring its independence and proper funding, require enormous efforts to effectively implement everyone's right to a fair trial, as guaranteed by the Convention for the Protection of Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Data collected and analysed through the developed software can provide additional, unique information, which will become the basis for more detailed studies of the conditions and causes of shortcomings in the functioning of the domestic judicial system and the execution of court decisions.

REFERENCES

judicial practice register decisions

1. Golomozyi V, Mishura Yu, Izarova I and Ianevych T, `Processing Big Data of Court Decisions' (2023) 11(4) Baltic Journal of Modern Computing 580, doi:10.22364/ bjmc.2023.11.4.04.

2. Khotynska-Nor O and Potapenko A, `Courts of Ukraine in Wartime: Issues of Sustainable Functioning' (2022) 31 Revista Juridica Portucalense 218, doi:10.34625/ issn.2183-2705(31)2022.ic-09.

3. Khotynska-Nor O, Theory and Practice of Judicial Reform in Ukraine (Pravova yednist', Alerta 2016).

4. Lesyuk T, 'The Activities of the Judiciary Will Become More Transparent' Legal Newspaper (Kyiv, 19 January 2005) 5 <https://pravo.org.ua/diyalnist-sudovoyi-vlady- stane-prozorishoyu/> accessed 4 November 2023.

5. Moskalenko VS and Selivanenko VP, Collection of Explanations of the Supreme Commercial Court of Ukraine (DM Prytyka ed, 2nd edn, In-Jure 2003).

6. Prytyka Yu and Izarova I (eds), Access to Justice in Conditions of Sustainable Development: to the 30th Anniversary of Ukraine's Independence (Dakor 2021).

7. Smalyuk R and Ruda T, 'Accessibility, Digitalization, Trust: 3D Ukrainian Justice on the Way to the EU' (Centre of Policy and Legal Reform, 2 December 2022) <https://pravo.org.ua/blogs/dostupnist-didzhytalizatsiya-dovira-3d-ukrayinskogo- pravosuddya-na-shlyahu-do-yes/> accessed 4 November 2023.

Размещено на Allbest.ru