On Monday, 31 January 2021, Prof. Dr. Dr. Frauke Rostalski gave a lecture on the question “Can AI replace humans in jurisprudence and the administration of justice?” as part of the focus lecture on information law. Professor Rostalski holds the Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, Philosophy of Law and Comparative Law at the University of Cologne and is a member of the German Ethics Council.
By way of introduction, Ms Rostalski problematised the problems of current case law, in particular the regional differences in sentencing for comparable offences, which jeopardise the acceptance of court rulings.
As a possibility of using artificial intelligence in jurisprudence, Ms Rostalski differentiated between simple decision-support software and the complete replacement of human application of the law by so-called “Iudex et machina”. Prof. Rostalski assessed the latter with regard to its efficiency and the lack of bias of artificial intelligence, but criticised the accompanying positivism, the lack of transparency and the resulting responsibility deficit.
The lecture was rounded off with an exciting discussion and Q&A session.
We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Dr. Rostalski for this exciting lecture and hope to welcome her again.
