THE JUDICIARY AS A CONSTRUCTIVE INSTITUTION IN THE AGE OF AI: POWER, JUSTICE, AND THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATION

This article aims to re-examine the role and power structure of the judiciary in the context of globalization and the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI). Its primary objective is to clarify the functional transformations, legitimacy, and critical capacity of the judiciary—particularly judges—when confronted with data-driven power, the technocratization of justice, and the erosion of trust in the rule of law. Research methodology is based on humanistic philosophy and critical social theory. It uses an interdisciplinary approach that is connected to legal studies, political science, the sociology of law, and the philosophy of technology. The article, similarly, uses dialectics in a way that inverts and transposes the pairs: rule of law and technocracy, freedom and control, principles and rules, and legality and morality. The upshot is that the judiciary has moved from being a law-interpreting institution to a political and moral actor. It became a new centre of power in fragile representative institutions. Judges are increasingly acting as moral and social agents, moving beyond the purely neutral role of legal experts enforcing the law within the framework of a stable professional life with a stable income. However, it is also clear that its success can change the character of the judicial function in a way which may weaken democratic representation and allow for an unbounded extension of the scope of judicial action, if the fact that judicial action has a second face – the face of law enforcement – is not fully taken into account. The article emphasizes the need for restructuring the judiciary as an open, dialogical institution—closely linked to social life and subject to institutional and moral oversight—to ensure the safeguarding of justice, democracy, and humanity in the emerging global order.