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23 Nw. J. Tech. & Intell. Prop. 1 (2025-2026)

handle is hein.journals/nwteintp23 and id is 1 raw text is: Copyright 2025 by Nikola L. Datzov Volume 23, Number 1 (2025) Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property Al JURISPRUDENCE: TOWARD AUTOMATED JUSTICE Nikola L. Datzov* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................2 II. THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY'S PATH TOWARD AUTOMATED JUSTICE......................... 6 A. First Evolution: The Evolving Role ofU.S. Judges 6 B. Second Evolution: A Shift to a Digital Judiciary 10 C. Third Evolution: Fewer Trials ButMore Judicial Work? 12 III. FOURTH EVOLUTION: RISE OF THE Al JUDGE ...................................................... 17 A. The AI Revolution 17 B. AI's (Current) Capabilities forJudicial Work 21 C. International Courts'Adoption of AI 25 D. U.S. Courts'Adoption of AI 28 IV. TOWARD AUTOMATED JUSTICE-A TAXONOMY FOR Al JUDGES ........................ 30 A. Behind the Chambers Door What Judges Actually Do 31 Nikola L. Datzov is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law. Before becoming a law professor, he had the privilege to serve as a law clerk for judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. I am grateful to all who offered invaluable feedback on earlier versions of this Article: Jonas Anderson, Barton Beebe, Sarah Belliston, Larry Birnbaum, Doni Bloomfield, Oren Bracha, Bernard Chao, Bryan Choi, Jorge Contreras, Dennis Crouch, Deven Desai, Laura Dolbow, John Duffy, Tabrez Ebrahim, A. Michael Froomkin, Katrina Geddes, Aman Gebru, Michael Goodyear, Neel Guha, Yan Fang, Kevin Frazier, Renee Henson, Tim Hsieh, Tim Holbrook, Mark Janis, Eric Johnson, Valerie Koch, Christa Laser, Mark Lemley, Dan Lewerenz, Giovanna Massarotto, Jonathan Masur, Sari Mazzurco, Michael McGinniss, Andrew Michaels, Viva Moffat, Amy Motomura, Andres Sawicki, Brian Pappas, Stephanie Plamondon, Lala Qadir, Blake Reid, Nathan Reitinger, Mark Riedl, Jessica Roberts, Zvi Rosen, Alan Rozenshtein, David Rubenstein, Matthew Sag, Peter Salib, David Schwartz, David Simon, Sean Seymore, Marvin Slepian, Hayley Stillwell, Benjamin Sundholm, Andrew Torrance, Anoo Vyas, Christopher Yoo, and Peter Yu. I am especially grateful to The Honorable Diane Wood and Michael Livermore for serving as commentators on the paper for the Eighth Junior Faculty Forum for Law and STEM, as well as the discussants at the forum. I also benefitted from the opportunity to hear ideas and feedback from presentations of this project at the University of Missouri Al and Society: Government, Policy, and the Law conference, JIPSA 2024-2025 Winter Workshops, 2024 Rocky Mountain IP Workshop, Eighth Annual Texas A&M Intellectual Property Scholars Roundtable, WIPIP 2025, the Fourth Annual Scholars Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence, Central States Law Schools Association 2025 Scholarship Conference, and the UND Law Faculty Research Series. A word of appreciation is also certainly due to Justin Penney and Liam Waugh for their excellent research assistance. Many thanks as well to the editors of the Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property for their astute and helpful suggestions and revisions. Of course, the views in the Article are my own. I