Potential Roles of AI in Discretionary Legal Decision-Making

iCourts lunch seminar with Professor Ragna Aarli from the University of Bergen.

The interdisciplinary LEXplain project explores potential roles of artificial intelligence in discretionary legal decision-making within public administration. Led by Professor Henrik Palmer Olsen, the project brings together scholars from multiple disciplines. In this presentation, I draw on findings from my previous research on courts – focusing on judicial independence, communication, digitalisation, transparency, and the application of expert knowledge (e.g., the use of DNA evidence) in legal decision-making – to develop new research questions relevant to LEXplain and large-scale administrative decision-making.

Bio

Ragna Aarli is a Professor of Jurisprudence and Head of the Research Group for Rule of Law and Legal Theory at the Faculty of Law, University of Bergen. Her interdisciplinary academic background in media studies and law has shaped her research focus on the role of communication in legal decision-making and the importance of transparency in safeguarding a healthy public sphere for democracy.

She is Co-Project Manager of LEXplain – Explainability Requirements for AI Used in Legal Decision-Making, a project funded by the Norwegian Research Council and led by Professor Henrik Palmer Olsen. Aarli’s work examines, inter alia, how digitalisation influences legal communication across various contexts, from fundamental legal methodology to administrative law and court proceedings.

She has an extensive record of academic achievement, with more than 50 publications (books and articles), alongside editorial responsibilities, book reviews, and numerous peer reviews. Aarli has served on several public committees in Norway, including the government-appointed Courts Commission (2017–2020) and the Freedom of Speech Commission (2020–2022). She currently chairs the Political Parties Act Committee.