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Paper short abstract

This paper explores how AI tools are incorporated into judicial institutions handling armed conflict claims, and how their integration alters the conditions under which professional judgment is exercised and the forms of action considered available or justified in the administration of justice.

Paper long abstract

Colombian judicial institutions that deal with claims brought by victims of the armed conflict operate within a context of prolonged internal violence and sustained struggles over how justice should be defined and delivered in its aftermath. Over the past decades, these institutions have addressed questions of accountability, recognition, and reparation, responding to struggles related to victims’ rights, the burden of proof in contexts of internal armed conflict, and the institutionalization of transitional justice mechanisms. This presentation explores the integration of AI tools into judicial systems within this setting.

Drawing on ongoing ethnographic research in Colombia and a review of reported AI use in judicial institutions, the presentation examines how AI tools are incorporated into everyday judicial work. These systems prioritise claims, identify patterns in past records, estimate probabilities, and process large volumes of judicial text. They are built through decisions about what data to include, how to define relevant variables, and how to compare information across cases. Legal professionals must determine how to work with these outputs and how to situate them within existing standards of accepting evidence and proving responsibility.

As these tools become embedded in institutional routines, the conditions under which professional judicial judgment is exercised are altered. In institutions responsible for processing claims arising from armed conflict, where determinations of harm and recognition are significant, the presentation considers how the integration of AI redefines what becomes relevant within judicial processes, and how this influences which forms of action are available or justified in the administration of justice.