Catherine Régis, Full Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Montreal Canada, Research Chair in Health Law and Policy & Canada-CIFAR Chair in Artificial Intelligence / Associate Academic Member at Mila (Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute) / Director of Social Innovation and International Policy at IVADO Jake Okechukwu Effoduh, Assistant Professor, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University Cristina Godoy Bernardo de Oliveira, Professor of Law, Ribeirão Preto Law School, University of São Paulo

In an era where AI technologies are rapidly reshaping legal frameworks, judicial processes, and the very experience of justice worldwide, this collection offers critical, interdisciplinary, and context-sensitive overview. Guided by the esteemed guest editors Catherine Régis, Jake Okechukwu Effoduh, and Cristina Godoy Bernardo de Oliveira, this issue tackle ethical and legal implications emerging from AI’s integration into courts and legal services globally. This special volume features compelling contributions that explore AI’s multifaceted impact on crucial areas. Enhancing access to justice, ensuring procedural fairness and judicial efficiency. Building institutional trust and redefining the roles of legal professionals. We showcase diverse methodological approaches and foster collaborative works that bridge the essential domains of law, technology, social sciences, and public policy, offering insights for academics, practitioners, and policymakers alike. Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how justice is understood, administered, and experienced. As legal systems, legal actors and justice institutions like courts across the world experiment with digital innovations, there is an urgent need for critical, context-sensitive scholarship and engagement that bridges the gap between technology like AI and law. Within this evolving and complex landscape, this special issue on AI in the Justice Sector from the Journal of AI for Sustainable Development emerges: a pioneering, open-access international journal committed to interrogating and illuminating the intersections of AI, justice, and the rule of law. AI in the Justice Sector will be designed not simply as a repository of research but as a platform for vibrant exchange among practitioners, scholars, technologists, policymakers, and the broader public. A flagship online conference organized by Mila (Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute) and UNESCO is being explored to support this special issue of the journal. This convening would bring together selected authors to present their contributions, exchange feedback and methodological insights, and foster future collaborations among contributors and other participants.

This special issue will focus on AI within the operational ecosystem of the justice sector. It will examine the use and feasibility of AI technologies across justice institutions and among key legal actors including judges, lawyers, notaries, prosecutors, arbitrators, court staff, and other judicial officers. It invites rigorous practical, theoretical, interdisciplinary or empirically grounded analysis of AI tools within courts, tribunals (including arbitral tribunals), legal services, and dispute resolution systems at the domestic, regional, and international levels. More specifically, the special issue is looking for contributions on the following topics: * Explorations of how AI impacts access to justice, procedural fairness, daily operations (caseload, procedures, roles and relationships among colleagues) within institutions, and institutional trust. * Reflections on how AI can assist judicial efficiency without undermining judicial independence. * Case-study analysis on how AI is being developed for or used by key legal actors across the world * Explorations of collaborative dialogues between legal professionals and AI developers to co-design responsible technological solutions. * Assessments of capacity, governance, and accountability frameworks for deploying AI within justice systems. * Analysis of AI literacy initiatives within legal institutions, including how courts, judicial schools, and bar associations are developing training programs and professional development strategies to foster critical understanding and responsible adoption of AI technologies in legal practice. AI in the Justice Sector welcomes contributions from a wide array of disciplines. It recognizes that understanding the ethical, legal, and operational dimensions of AI in justice cannot be achieved within disciplinary silos. Thus, the journal should invite scholarship and practice-based work from fields including Law and Legal Studies, Computer Science and Machine Learning, Science and Technology Studies (STS), Judicial Informatics and Legal Practice, social sciences, political science, sociology, communication etc. Works that model collaboration or knowledge exchange between domains (for example, co-authored articles by a judge and a data scientist, a legal scholar working alongside an ML engineer, two judicial officers from different jurisdictions, academics and judicial actors, etc.) are welcome.

Call for abstracts: The call for abstracts will be open from July 15th to October 31st 2025. Abstracts (300–500 words) should clearly outline the research focus and relevance to the journal’s scope/pillar, methodology, and interdisciplinary contribution, as well as anticipated findings or implications.

Review of abstracts: A rolling review process will begin during the final weeks of the call. This will allow early submissions to receive feedback promptly. All reviews will be completed within one month of the call’s closing. Selected authors will receive invitations to submit full manuscripts.

Manuscript development window: Authors will have until February 15th to submit manuscripts between 4,000 and 5,000 words. Manuscripts will then undergo peer review. Once authors received their peer reviews, they will have a maximum of 2 weeks to send their final version. The special issue will be published in April 2026.