Lawyer Handling Cases in Legal System. - Eisenreich is pushing for the development of AI in research.
Germany's Bavaria Justice Minister, Georg Eisenreich (CSU), is advocating for the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the legal system and urges the government to update the legal framework. The state will submit a proposal at the Justice Ministers' Conference in Hannover, which will take place from Wednesday to Thursday.
According to Eisenreich's ministry, AI can assist in organizing facts, simplifying bulk proceedings, or anonymizing verdicts. The Bavarian Justice Department is investigating the use of AI in various areas, including easing the workload of courts in mass proceedings like the Diesel lawsuits or in the battle against child pornography using a Darknet search engine. Nonetheless, there are also legal barriers encountered in the research projects.
In 2018, Eisenreich launched a digital offensive for the Bavarian Justice Department. The minister pointed out that for the digitalization of the justice system, the modernization of federal laws is also crucial. The outdated legal framework frequently poses a barrier that needs to be removed by the federal government in many areas. Bavaria has introduced several legal political measures through the Bundesrat and the Justice Ministers' Conference.
In the ongoing pilot projects, it is often necessary to search and analyze vast quantities of legal documents using automated methods, Eisenreich added. The processing of these evaluations is permissible under the Copyright Act, even if the documents are licensed under copyright in individual instances. However, it's uncertain whether the justice system can engage other institutions, such as universities, in joint research projects for these evaluations.
"To utilize the potential of AI, the Federal Justice Minister must establish legal certainty for joint AI initiatives as quickly as possible. This necessitates clarification in German copyright law," concluded Eisenreich while addressing Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP). The Minister sees numerous, not yet predictable opportunities. "AI is transforming our lives. We are at the cusp of a new era."
