The Giving Of Reasons: Judgement Writing, Judicial Reasoning, and GenAI

This article focuses on the core judicial role of giving reasons for a judge’s decision and the use of generative artificial intelligence (‘GenAI’) tools based on LLMs in the crafting of judgments. Considering specifically GenAI and judgment writing in common law systems, it deals with the connection between the act of decision-making and the giving of reasons for that decision. Our argument is that judgment writing should remain the domain of human judges, for reasons that are both institutional (the impact on the judicial system) and individual or processual (the impact on judges performing their roles). We seek to analyse the nature and extent of judicial use of GenAI tools that preserves this as a human domain. Ultimately, we conclude that it is not appropriate to use GenAI for judgment writing, but peripheral or adjacent uses may be supportable, provided they do not undercut the core judicial role.