ERA (Academy of European Law) organized in Barcelona on June 15-16, 2023 the event Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Criminal Justice: Automated Decision-Making and its Application in Criminal Law.
The event’s key topics were: What AI is and what legal practitioners need to know; Robots causing harm: practical issues for police investigations; AI to predict crimes; Facial recognition technology in policing; AI and criminal justice cases; Bias in machine-learning and AI systems, Sentencing and AI; AI and deepfakes.
Following the introduction by Laviero Buono (Head of Section, European Criminal Law, ERA), Emmanuelle Legrand (Magistrate, Ministry of Economy, Finance, Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, Paris) gave a presentation titled ‘Putting forward a European approach to artificial intelligence and robotics: work carried out by the European Commission’ .
Gian Marco Solas (Lawyer, EU law Supervisor, Amsterdam Law School) presented his research on Models from physics and AI in EU criminal law enforcement: due process and rights of defence under EU law.
Professor Pete Fussey spoke about challenges ahead in AI, primarily about advanced biometric surveillance and facial recognition technology.
Professor Martyna Kusak gave a presentation on Big Data and the quality of datasets used for the development of AI-based tools for law enforcement in criminal justice systems
Professor Vanessa Franssen opened some big questions about the use of AI tools in criminal courts.
Professor Jesper Ryberg Spoke about pros and cons of sentencing and AI, with the accent on the conflict between algorithmic accuracy and transparency, while Guillem Soler presented the judge’s view on the use of artificial intelligence systems in criminal sentencing.
Simone Cuomo, Secretary-General of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), thoroughly discussed the impact of AI on procedural safeguards and legal practice.
Carsten Gußmann presented the legal and practical challenges of implementing AI in law enforcement practice, from the criminal justice practitioners’ perspective.
From a defence perspective, George Zlati, Criminal Defense Lawyer specialized in Cybercrime, analysed some of procedural challenges posed by AI and machine evidence in criminal justice systems.
Professor Serena Quattrocolo presented results from a comparative analysis of machine evidence in criminal trials.
Professor Maša Galič discussed equality of arms in the context of big data and AI-based search tools, by analysinf the use of Hansken in the Dutch Ennetcom and EncroChat cases.
Agnes Venema (Deepfakes and Security Policy Expert; Strategic Policy Advisor; Intelligence & National Security Researcher) highlighted the effects of deepfakes on criminal justice.