When Algorithms Judge: Power, Justice and the Rule of Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

An algorithm flags a suspect. A risk score influences a sentence. A lawyer submits an argument built on cases that never existed. Who answers when artificial intelligence gets justice wrong. In When Algorithms Judge, Jeevak Kumar examines what happens when technologies that promise faster, more accessible justice begin to shape decisions affecting liberty, privacy, and equality. Moving across policing, prosecution, courts, and legal practice, the book explores how algorithmic bias, opaque reasoning, and misplaced human trust can weaken the safeguards on which justice depends. Drawing on cases and regulatory approaches from India and beyond, Kumar makes the case for binding rules that preserve human judgment, make automated decisions contestable, and hold institutions and technology providers accountable. He also examines a troubling threat to vulnerable people: the capacity of AI to reconstruct identities that the law seeks to protect. Written for lawyers, scholars, policymakers, and readers concerned about the future of public power, this book sets out a practical vision for using AI to widen access to justice while keeping its exercise firmly subject to law.