Source: Cambridge University Press

China has implemented Internet Courts that integrate multiple AI technologies — including virtual courtrooms, intelligent case filing, automated document review, and blockchain-based evidence storage — to increase efficiency, accessibility, and administrative capacity in civil dispute resolution. The chapter’s findings draw on performance data and interviews with judges and legal practitioners and present case studies from Internet Courts in Hangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai that illustrate practical benefits such as faster processing and greater procedural consistency as well as systemic limitations. Observed concerns include algorithmic bias, uneven data quality, and lack of transparency in how AI systems influence decision-making; these risks are evaluated alongside measurable operational improvements.

The authors argue for implementation frameworks combining robust oversight, explicit legal safeguards, and meaningful human involvement to avoid over-reliance on automation and to preserve judicial discretion, ethical standards, and human empathy so as not to undermine fairness, public trust, or legitimacy. The chapter appears in The Cambridge Handbook of AI in Civil Dispute Resolution (pp. 163–175, DOI provided on the page) and notes that access to the full chapter requires institutional or personal login or purchase and that Cambridge Core’s usage policies apply to saving or reusing content.