Editorial

The contributions selected for this special issue exemplify the intellectual richness and diversity of perspectives that characterised the December 2024 seminar. Collectively, they reflect the central question animating the event: can artificial intelligence genuinely serve as a tool to diminish legal inequality, or does it risk entrenching existing asymmetries of power? Taken together, these contributions chart a nuanced and sometimes ambivalent picture of the role of artificial intelligence in enhancing access to justice within commercial law. They show that while AI has genuine potential to make legal processes more accessible, this promise is fragile. Technological innovation cannot be understood in isolation from the institutional, economic, and governance structures in which it develops. AI may simplify procedures, reduce barriers, and empower marginalised communities. At the same time, it may also deepen existing inequalities, obscure decision-making, and shift important judicial functions into private hands. As AI continues to influence legal systems, the key task for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers is to ensure that its development promotes fairness and equity rather than efficiency alone. The contributions in this special issue stress that access to justice in the age of AI depends not only on specific technological tools but also on the broader legal and technological systems that support them. Hence, these systems must remain public, transparent, and accountable if AI is to play a meaningful role in creating a more equitable commercial justice landscape.