The Better Regulation Delivery Office presented a study demonstrating the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for the systematic analysis of court decisions. The analysis results are presented in a dashboard.
The study is based on BRDO’s materials within the advocacy campaign for the decriminalization of adult content in Ukraine. During the analysis of 222 court verdicts under Article 301 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (CCU) using AI, the following patterns were identified:
- 27% of verdicts (60 out of 222) contain references to the International Convention for the Suppression of the Circulation of and Traffic in Obscene Publications of 12 September 1923, although, according to official data, Ukraine is not a party to this convention.
- 10% of verdicts (22 out of 222) are based on the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Public Morality”, even in cases where the alleged acts took place after this law was repealed.
The analysis data demonstrate the potential of AI in identifying inconsistencies and archaic norms that are still used in judicial practice.
“This is one of the first examples where AI not only generates text but also performs a research function in the legal field. We see how judicial practice can be made more transparent and how the study of legal issues can be elevated to a systemic level. Accordingly, AI can be a tool for improving justice,” commented Ihor Samokhodskyi, Head of the IT & Telecom Sector at BRDO.
The study was prepared as part of BRDO’s strategic work on introducing AI practices into the processes of developing and analyzing public policy. Earlier, the BRDO team also launched a number of AI-based tools:
- The Telegram channels “301 Monitor” and “Corruption Radar” automatically publish short AI-generated summaries of new court verdicts under articles related to the circulation of pornography and corruption crimes, respectively. These services use data from the “Babusya” court registry search engine by Opendatabot.
- An interactive chat based on NotebookLM for in-depth analysis of verdicts under Article 301 of the CCU.
A video recording of the study presentation is available on BRDO’s YouTube channel.