反思智能化裁判的可能及限度

Reflection on the Possibility and Limitation of Intelligent Judging

人工智能为司法审判方式改革提供了重要的契机,智慧法院的探索、互联网法院的建立让司法变得更信息化、智能化和现代化。司法改革的顶层设计者也开始运用人工智能的理论和技术,来统一法律在类案裁判中的标准和尺度。然而,在变幻万千的智能化时代,司法权的本质并未发生改变,它仍然是一种在开放性的场域中依赖人类理性进行价值争辩和推论的活动。智能化司法采取的"简化裁判过程"和"消解价值判断"的双重策略均与司法的一般性质相悖。人工智能在司法裁判中只能发挥一种有限的辅助性角色,过度夸大甚至将其神化在现实中行不通。大数据预测在简单案件中或许能够实现同案同判的目标,但是在大多数情形下同案同判仍然要依赖人类自己的理性判断。因此,在智能化审判方式改革的进程中,应理性地审视人工智能的内在局限,防止司法裁判异化为仅仅以数据和符号为演算逻辑的机械司法。

Artificial intelligence provides an important opportunity for the reform of judicial trials.The exploration of Smart Court and the establishment of Internet Court undoubtedly make the judging more informative,intelligent and modern.The top-level designers of judicial reform have also begun to use the theory and technology of artificial intelligence to unify the standards and scales of law in similar cases.However,in the changing era of intelligence,the essence of judicial power has not changed.It is still an activity that relies on human reason for value debate and inference in an open field.Interestingly,the dual strategies of"simplifying the judicial process"and"dispelling the value judgment"adopted by the intelligent judging are inconsistent with the general nature of judicial process.Artificial intelligence can only play a limited auxiliary role in judicial adjudication,and the view that over exaggerates or even deifies it will not work in reality.Prediction based on Big data may be able to achieve the goal of"like cases be treated alike"in simple cases,but in most cases,the achievement that goal still depends on human’s own rational judgment.Therefore,in the reform process of intelligent trial mode,we should rationally and objectively examine the limited function of artificial intelligence to prevent the judicial judgment from being alienated into mechanical justice with only data and symbols as checking logic.