The rules for artificial intelligence in European courtrooms are being written now, and a legal scholar from India has drawn a clear line this week in Brussels. AI can handle the paperwork. It cannot handle the judgment.
Prof. (Dr.) Ashutosh Mishra, Registrar of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Law University in Sonipat, spoke at a conference organized by the Centre for Indo-European Cooperation.
The event was called Role of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Judicial Functioning. It pulled together judges, legal scholars, policymakers, researchers, diplomats and tech experts from India and Europe. The core policy question is simple.
What tasks in a court can be handed to a machine, and what tasks must stay with a human? Mishra’s answer was precise.
Legal research, document management, case administration, translation — these are jobs for AI. They are administrative, repetitive, and ripe for speed. The goal is a justice system that works faster and costs less.
That is the promise. But the line is firm. Constitutional values, judicial independence, ethical standards and human sensitivity are not up for debate.
They cannot be coded. They cannot be automated.
Mishra said AI must remain a support tool. Not a substitute. The distinction matters because courts in Europe are already testing algorithms for bail decisions and sentencing recommendations.
The temptation to hand over more is real. The wider policy shift Mishra argued for goes beyond the courtroom.
Law schools, he said, need to change. They must prepare students for an AI-enabled justice ecosystem. That means interdisciplinary education.
It means advanced research and skill development. It means teaching future lawyers and judges how to work with machines without letting machines decide. Academic programs must combine technological competence with constitutional values, ethical governance and the rule of law.
That is a hard balance. Technology moves fast.
Law moves slow. The gap between them is where mistakes happen. No one at the conference argued against efficiency.
The debate was about limits. Mishra’s position is that those limits must be set before the technology becomes standard, not after.
Europe has the General Data Protection Regulation. It has the AI Act in progress. But those frameworks are broad.
They do not address the specific act of a judge weighing evidence and delivering a verdict. That act, Mishra implied, is what is at stake. The nature of judicial decision-making itself.
A machine can process facts. It can find patterns.
It can predict outcomes based on past cases. But it cannot weigh a defendant’s remorse. It cannot read a witness’s hesitation.
It cannot apply mercy. The conference was held in Brussels, the regulatory capital of Europe.
That location is not incidental. Rules written here tend to spread. If European courts adopt AI as a tool but reject it as a judge, that standard could become a global benchmark.
Mishra’s message was aimed at that audience. Use the technology. Do not worship it.
The event was organized by the Centre for Indo-European Cooperation, a group that exists to bridge two legal traditions. Indian and European courts face different pressures.
India’s courts are buried under a backlog of millions of cases. Europe’s courts face rising caseloads from migration and data law. Both need help.
Both are looking at AI as an answer. Mishra’s answer is yes, but with a fence around the bench.
The fence is the law. The fence is the constitution. The fence is the human being in the robe.
Those are the policy stakes. Those are the rules that will decide whether AI serves justice or replaces it.
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