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The article discusses the opportunities and prospects for the implementation of the robot-judge in the Russian Federation judicial system. The urgency of the study predetermines by the large-scale digital revolution that affects all spheres of society, including the area of legal activity (for example, the initiative of German Gref to use lawyers-robots in Sberbank). The purpose of the study is to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of introducing the robot-judge into the legal environment. Research methods are analysis, synthesis and comparative law. The study contains: firstly, the comprehensive assessment of the category “judicial discretion” in the current criminal procedure legislation, the advantages and disadvantages of fixing this category in the Russian Federation Criminal Procedure Code; secondly, examples of the negative impact of judicial discretion on law enforcement practice, with specific decisions of the courts of justice given as arguments; thirdly, the analysis of the possibility of overcoming the specified negative impact through the introduction of digital technologies; fourth, the analysis of current trends in the introduction of digital technologies in the legal sphere, including in the field of the judicial system; fifth, the opinions of the judges of the Russian Federation Constitutional Court, scientists and practitioners regarding the possibility of using robotic technologies in the judicial system. In conclusion, the authors concluded that, in general, the trend towards digitalization in the judicial system is positive, but negative are the possible prerequisites for replacing the judge with the robot, introducing the fact that in this case the possibility of judicial discretion is excluded.
Kovalenko et al. (Wed,) studied this question.