Enhancing Judicial Autonomy Using Artificial Intelligence
Date: December 17, 2025 (Wednesday)
Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Venue: Room 901, 9/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong
Speaker: Jinzhe Tan (PhD Candidate in Artificial Intelligence and Law, Faculty of Law, University of Montreal)
This presentation argues for a systemic integration of AI across the entire lifecycle of a legal dispute. I propose a three-tiered framework designed to filter caseloads and enhance judicial decision‑making. The first tier focuses on dispute prevention. I will demonstrate how tools such as JusticeBot can provide laypeople with accessible legal information and guidance, helping them understand their rights and obligations, identify appropriate remedies, and prevent disputes from arising or escalating. The second tier addresses dispute resolution. Here I will show how systems like LLMediator can facilitate negotiation and settlement, efficiently handling “high‑volume, low‑value” conflicts and enabling citizens to resolve problems early and at low cost. Together, these two tiers divert a large number of suitable matters away from formal adjudication, allowing human judges to concentrate their limited attention on complex, high‑stakes cases. At the final tier, I introduce the idea of AI as a “distorting mirror.” Our empirical work suggests that, although large language models are not perfect replicas of human thought, they reliably capture certain cognitive patterns. By analyzing these imperfect reflections and systematically comparing LLM outputs with human judgments, we can better understand human cognition and strengthen judicial autonomy through self‑examination and better‑informed decision‑making.
Jinzhe Tan is a PhD student in Artificial Intelligence and Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Montreal, supervised by Prof. Karim Benyekhlef. His research examines how AI can expand access to justice and support technology‑assisted dispute resolution, while also strengthening the quality and consistency of judicial decision‑making. Jinzhe has published in leading AI and legal informatics venues, including a co‑authored paper that received the Best Paper Award at JURIX 2023. His recent work spans multiple dimensions of AI in law: using large language models to structure legal knowledge, designing AI‑driven tools for dispute resolution and layperson legal understanding, and studying how AI can help diagnose and mitigate cognitive limitations in the judicial process. Through this interdisciplinary work, he aims to advance the responsible integration of AI into legal systems so that technology enhances, rather than undermines, fairness, consistency, and access to justice.
Moderator: Benjamin Chen, Associate Professor & Director of Law and Technology Centre, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law
Light lunch will be provided for registered participants. To register, please go to https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=104415.
For inquiries, please contact Ms. Grace Chan at mcgrace@hku.hk / 3917 4727.