At the opening of the inaugural Australian Legal Convention, the High Court’s Chief Justice Stephen Gageler discussed the most pressing issues facing the judiciary and legal system, including the “dramatic decline” in public confidence, the “existential issues” posed by artificial intelligence, and the treatment of marginalised communities.
In courtroom one at the High Court of Australia, Chief Justice Stephen Gageler opened the Australian Legal Convention (ALC) with the “State of the Judicature Address”, laying out the issues of “pressing national importance” identified by himself and the nation’s chief justices.
Touching first on the importance of public confidence in the judicial and legal systems, Chief Justice Gageler said the past decade has seen a decline in trust and respect for judicatures in many countries across the world due to truth decay and the transformation of technology.
Chief Justice Gageler said Australia is not immune, and the judiciary must be cognisant of how it presents itself to the public.
“The confidence and concomitant respect of the Australian people and their elected representatives in and for the Australian judicature cannot and should not ever be taken for granted,” the Chief Justice said.
“How the confidence and respect of the Australian people and their elected representatives are to continue to be earned by the Australian judicature in a rapidly changing world demands active consideration.”
Turning to artificial intelligence, Chief Justice Gageler said the focus has been on its inappropriate use to prepare evidence and formulate submissions by litigants and legal practitioners. The increasing misconduct has entered an “unsustainable place”, with the judiciary acting as “human filters” of machine-generated arguments.
However, there is another focus on how the Australian judicature could use artificial intelligence within its own processes, which is the subject of a current reference to the Victorian Law Reform Commission.
Chief Justice Gageler said that while there are reasons to proceed with caution, the efficiency of AI “holds the potential for its use to contribute significantly to the functioning of courts and tribunals, especially within a system of civil justice that aspires to be just, quick and cheap”.
Examination of the potential use of AI will involve questioning the extent of human involvement, including whether there is a point to a human judge, how much value can be placed in the humanity of law, and whether that necessitates the exercise of human judgement.
“These are existential issues. The need for the Australian judicature to grapple with them is arising as the pace of development of AI is outstripping human capacity to assess and perhaps even to comprehend its potential risks and rewards,” Chief Justice Gageler said.
On access to justice, Chief Justice Gageler said equal justice must involve members of the judiciary taking measures “to reach and be reached” by communities in isolated parts of the country. Community legal services and other service providers are an “indispensable link”.
There are also non-distance-related issues to consider, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, unrepresented individuals, and the small “but growing” number of sovereign citizens.
“The proportion of litigants in person who appear across courts and tribunals in Australia, often but not always due to the inaccessibility of affordable or available legal representation, is a testament to the work that remains to be done in building a truly accessible Australian judicature,” Chief Justice Gageler said.
Equally important to address is the judiciary’s response to family and sexual violence, particularly given the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) recent report, which suggested the system of justice “is neither supporting those who have experienced sexual violence to seek justice nor holding perpetrators to account”.
First Nations justice is just as critical, with the broader experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within the Australian judiciary, and particularly within the criminal justice system, challenging the contemporary notions of justice and human rights.
“Each of us here present at the ALC has chosen to be involved in the same ambitious project,” Chief Justice Gageler said.
“We have assembled with diverse backgrounds and perspectives yet with a common purpose: collectively to pursue the goal of ensuring that the Australian judicature, and the Australian legal system more broadly, responds to the contemporary challenges it faces in a way that best serves the Australian people.”
More to come from the ALC.
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
