The impact of artificial intelligence on the preparation of evidence in the Saudi judiciary - a comparative study

Abstract

 This study comes in an era of rapid digital development and digital governments competing in the quality of their performance, the speed of their completion, and the governance of their procedures. The Saudi evidence system has been modernized and developed, benefiting from the systems that preceded it and drawing on regional and international experiences. One of its innovations is the establishment of a department dedicated to the preparation of evidence and the management of its affairs, without compromising the judiciary's ability to weigh and examine evidence. Given the novelty of the topic and the lack of previous studies, the researcher saw an opportunity to keep pace with this trend and develop it by examining the impact of employing artificial intelligence in serving this department. The first section begins by defining artificial intelligence, explaining its types and the most important roles it can play in serving the management of evidence preparation. It then defines judicial evidence, its evidence, and the characteristics of emerging evidence. The second section discusses the management of evidence preparation and its definition, and then discusses its roles based on what the system stipulates. The third section aims to balance the expected positives of employing artificial intelligence in preparing evidence and potential challenges of this employment. The researcher adopted a descriptive approach to explore principles and concepts, as well as to describe the roles of management. He also adopted an analytical approach to explore the expected effects of employing artificial intelligence in preparing evidence and its repercussions on the evidentiary process. He also adopted a comparative analytical approach to establish the roles and decisions of the competent administration. Among the most prominent findings reached by the researcher are: Evidence preparation management is a new administrative approach to managing the evidentiary process in the Saudi judiciary. Its goal is to expedite its consideration and manage the processes of this consideration in a flexible, specialized manner, without burdening the court session, thus reducing the duration of litigation. He also said that artificial intelligence can perform these roles in a swift, disciplined, and controlled manner to improve this process and raise its quality. He also said that the expected positive effects, such as speed, discipline, and standardization of procedures taken with evidentiary evidence, outweigh the potential challenges, such as fears of non-compliance with the principles of judicial organization in Saudi Arabia, or the lack of recognition and distrust of the outputs of artificial intelligence systems. The researcher recommends that artificial intelligence services be employed to serve the competent administration in preparing evidence, while adhering to the controls imposed by the competent authorities for the operation and employment of such technologies, with continuous research into the effects of these emerging services to accelerate their development.