Source: heise online

Digitalization of the judiciary in Germany is progressing with multiple state projects testing or partially deploying AI to reduce case backlogs by automating standardized work steps. AI systems are being applied to automated anonymization of judgments, structuring procedural documents, and extracting and evaluating relevant data under project names such as “Aleks” (Lower Saxony and Bavaria), “Jano” (Hesse and Baden-Württemberg) and “Maki” (Lower Saxony). Reports indicate algorithms have achieved higher hit rates in routine tasks than manual processing, and “Jano” entered regular operation in civil jurisdiction in December. The federal government told an AfD parliamentary inquiry that it has no concrete findings of a current increase in AI-generated filings and that there are no systematic surveys or reliable figures on that point. A specific incident involved fabricated case numbers and hallucinated judgments in appeal submissions, prompting Berlin judges to reprimand members of the bar.

The Ministry of Justice and EU regulation treat judicial and prosecutorial decision-support systems as high-risk AI, imposing legal obligations on risk management, data quality, documentation, cybersecurity and human supervision. Constitutional limits derived from the German Basic Law require that judicial power remains with elected judges, so the final decision in legal disputes must always be made by a human who can personally account for it; AI may only act in a supporting role and human oversight is intended to catch and correct machine errors. A joint federal-state AI strategy adopted in summer 2025 aims to develop standards for risk management, binding guidelines on data governance and a competence framework to guide training of judicial staff. Federal seed funding supports state projects through December with plans for major implementation by end-2026 and subsequent financing via a three-year digital pillar in the Pact for the Rule of Law; the executive branch is still examining possible further legislative action on European data protection law and liability for automated processing.