Retired judges and legal practitioners have warned lawyers and judicial officers against excessive dependence on artificial intelligence in the administration of justice.
The warning was issued in Port Harcourt during the launch of the book “AI, Justice and the Rule of Law: The Denton-West Principles for AI Governance, Digital Sovereignty and Constitutional Democracy,” written in honor of retired Court of Appeal Justice Sotonye Denton-West.
Justice Denton-West cautioned that AI should not be accepted uncritically by judges or lawyers for legal research, court filings, or judgment writing.
She argued that judicial decision-making contains distinctly human dimensions that technological systems cannot simply replace, warning that unquestioning reliance on AI could contribute to miscarriages of justice.
Retired Rivers State High Court judge, Justice Adolphus Enebeli, similarly stressed that lawyers remain responsible for the material they place before courts, irrespective of whether such information was generated by artificial intelligence.
His position places particular emphasis on verification: a lawyer who relies on an AI-generated authority, legal proposition, or factual statement remains professionally responsible for confirming its accuracy before using it.
Justice Tamunoigoni Oji, representing Rivers State Chief Judge Justice Simeon Amadi, also cautioned that artificial intelligence must remain a tool assisting human judgment rather than a substitute for judicial reasoning.
The book’s author, Obele Akinniranye, called for comprehensive legal and regulatory frameworks governing AI use within Nigeria’s judicial sector.
The debate comes at a time when AI tools are increasingly capable of producing legal opinions, research summaries, pleadings, and draft judgments—but can also generate inaccurate authorities or information unless independently verified.
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