Presented by Daphne Rein and Maria Samantha Orozco
In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of new technologies to administer justice in the Netherlands. To give a few examples of the digital technologies used, there has been an increase in legal applications, the creation of prediction tools for lawyers, such as judicial analytics, and an increase in legal help desks that offer free legal advice. i
In the Netherlands, the regulatory framework used is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and various data protection laws and regulations, which protect the sensible data of the general public. These laws and regulations have been adopted before the use of AI in the judicial system. But in the Netherlands, concerning Artificial Intelligence, the European Commission is helping the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure to set up a national AI supervision system to supervise AI applications, which can be used for AI in the administration of justice vii , for example, with legal applications. In the future, this can help regulate the risks of using artificial intelligence in the judicial system.
The analysis concludes that deploying new technology to solve governance problems can be problematic because “technological systems reflect the embedded privileges of those who design them”. xiv
These incidents highlight the alarming risks faced by children from migrant communities, particularly those of African descent, due to the biased use of AI in the justice system. Innocent young men are disproportionately criminalised, derailing their aspirations for work or higher education. xxiii Furthermore, the child support tax debacle resulted in children from already disadvantaged families being denied equal access to education, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality.
28A-Input_for_report_to_the_General_Assembly_on_human_rights_in_the_administration_of_justicePhoto by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash
References
i Jan van Ettekoven, B & Prins, C. (2018). “Chapter 18: Data analysis, artificial intelligence and the judiciary system”. Research Handbook in Data Science and Law. (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing). pp.425-447. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788111300.00026
vii European Commission. (2023). Commission supports the Netherlands in setting up a national Artificial Intelligence supervision system through the Technical Support Instrument. Directorate-General for Structural Support. https://commission.europa.eu/news/commission-supports-netherlands-setting-national-artificial-intelligence-supervision-system-through-2023-10-05_en
xiv Land, M. & Aronson, J. (2020). “Human Rights and Technology: New Challenges for Justice and Accountability” (Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Vol. 16) p. 232
xxiii Amnesty International. (2020). Netherlands: We sense trouble: Automated discrimination and mass surveillance in predictive policing in the Netherlands. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur35/2971/2020/en/