WHY AREN'T WE USING AI TO ADVANCE JUSTICE?

Giving overlooked victims access to lawyers and courts

- BY AMAL CLOONEY AND PHILIPPA WEBB

IN MALAWI, 1 IN 3 WOMEN IS A VICTIM OF VIOLENCE. Almost 1 in 10 girls is forced into marriage before turning 15. But fewer than 800 lawyers serve the population of 22 million. What chance does a girl in a rural village have of finding legal help—let alone affording it?

This is the justice gap: the chasm between those who need the law's protection and those who can actually access it. According to the World Justice Project, only about 10% of people reach a lawyer when they need one. Yet across the world, grave offenses are going unpunished. Cybercriminals attack hospitals, elections, and infrastructure with impunity. Journalists are imprisoned at record rates under defamation, “fake news,” and terrorism laws. In much of the world, women's rights exist only on paper. So the people who need justice most cannot get it.

But what if AI could change that? We have co-founded the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice (OITJ)—a partnership between the University of Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government and the Clooney Foundation for Justice—because we believe it can, in many ways.