Algorithms, Human Rights & US Law; What’s Next?

As Artificial Intelligence continues to rapidly merge with the legal sector, is it plausible to suggest that Human Rights can really be issued by a lifeless machine? Below Portia Vincent-Kirby, on behalf of Hudson McKenzie, discusses the development of algorithms in the US legal sphere.

Algorithms are a hot topic in law. For instance, new algorithm systems in technology have recently been released, specifically in the US, which allows for the law enforcement sector to determine exactly where and when a crime might happen before it does, based upon ‘predictive policing’ coding.

Furthermore, new algorithm processes are also set to enter the court scene using “algorithmic dispute-resolution mechanisms”, which could see the eventual decline of the use of human judges and lawyers altogether.

One benefit of the use of algorithms in the legal sector is that costs can be reduced dramatically, as well as the distribution of justice being enhanced through a clear-cut decision-making process.

However, exactly how far does the use of algorithms impact upon Human Rights generally? Can an algorithm machine really be a justified means of implementing and maintaining Human Rights law?

For instance, it was recently also unveiled that computer algorithms can also be susceptible to error, in which could frame an innocent person. This means that the person in question would have their Human Rights dramatically infringed upon, without use of defense against a computer operated law system.

This is predominately because, when suing a computer algorithm for a crime against a human, a judge (if a human one is still to exist) would have to look at who is responsible for the crime – the programmer, operator or implementor?

Therefore, so to avoid such circumstances, the continual development of algorithm-based technology must be made to adhere with Human Rights law.

This also means that as the merging with Artificial Intelligence develops, nation states may also be expected to enhance their own implementation with the global understanding of Human Rights law, so to adjust with the worldwide algorithm development accordingly.

Thus, could the merging of algorithm technology also see the decline of the nation state, through the enhancing of the implementation of Human Rights Law?