The use of artificial intelligence in EU criminal justice systems: first insights and emerging trends in an evolving landscape

<ns3:p> The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across EU criminal justice systems is rapidly expanding, accompanied by an intense academic debate on the risks and challenges it poses to procedural safeguards and fundamental rights. Despite this accelerating trend, a significant gap remains due to the absence of a clear and comprehensive legal framework – both at national and supranational levels – specifically tailored to criminal procedural law. In this context FUTURE was born, an EU–funded research project that aims to support national legislators in adopting regulatory frameworks consistent with shared EU principles of due process and the protection of fundamental rights. This article presents the results of the project’s first phase, which focused on collecting empirical data on the use and development of AI in criminal proceedings across EU Member States. The study seeks to identify the main trends and typologies of AI applications throughout the various procedural stages, excluding activities that fall outside the scope of criminal proceedings <ns3:italic>stricto sensu</ns3:italic> (such as predictive policing or sentence enforcement). Data were obtained through a combination of different methodologies: the desk research conducted consulting databases, reports, academic studies, and publicly accessible documents from the Member States was complemented through a questionnaire addressed to professionals and academics. The analysis so far conducted outlines that in most EU countries, AI systems are already being used or are currently under development in the context of criminal proceeding. However, there is not always full transparency on the part of the public authorities on the use of AI in criminal proceedings. Moreover, the types of systems traced largely correspond to those most frequently discussed in the existing procedural law scholarship to date. Nonetheless, the systems that have so far attracted the greatest attention from legal scholars – such as risk assessment tools for recidivism or biometric recognition – are not necessarily the most widespread in practice. On the contrary, what seems to be gaining increasing ground are technologies – like data mining tools – that have so far received comparatively little attention, but deserve greater attention in the future due to their possible impact on criminal procedural principles and safeguards. </ns3:p>