Educational and Practice-Oriented Initiatives: Preparing the Judiciary of Ukraine for the Age of AI

AGENDA

• Qualification standards and internal policies for continuous training.
• National School of Judges of Ukraine programmes, joint activities with the OSCE and the Council of Europe.
• Participation in IACA and CEPEJ events and adaptation of UNESCO guidelines.
• Workshops, the Diia platform, podcasts, and the GAIDeT mechanism.

Digital competence as a new qualification standard for judges

• The foundation for all educational programmes was the inclusion, in 2024, of the professional standard “Judge” in the Register of Qualifications, which for the first time defined “Digital Competence” as a mandatory requirement.
• This standard requires judges to possess skills in searching for, filtering, and verifying digital data, complying with strict cyber hygiene rules, and understanding risks when working with information systems.
• This sent an institutional signal that the justice system must adapt to conditions in which AI may become an integral professional tool.

Джерела: [1]

Internal court policies as a framework for continuous AI training

• Ukraine is introducing training not only through recommendations, but also through binding internal regulations. For example, the Regulation on the Use of AI Technologies by Employees of the Office of the Supreme Court (Order No. 117 of 08.12.2025) explicitly establishes the obligation of employees to undergo periodic training.
• According to this document, employees of the Office of the Supreme Court are required to study practical aspects of AI application on a regular basis, including mastering prompt formulation techniques in order to increase the reliability of results obtained and minimise algorithmic errors.

Джерела: [2]

HACC Strategy: cybersecurity and individualised training (2026–2028)

• In its Development Strategy for 2026–2028, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) identified digitalisation and AI as key elements for increasing operational efficiency.
• Within the framework of this strategy, individualised staff training, increased cybersecurity awareness among judges, and the creation of an internal crisis response protocol for cyber incidents are being introduced.
• This creates the conditions for the safe implementation of innovation in a court with the highest level of access to sensitive information.

Джерела: [3]

Internal training sessions in the Secretariat of the Supreme Court

• An important step is the proactive role of the courts themselves in organising internal educational activities. On 9 May 2025, a specialised training session entitled “The Potential of AI in the Context of the Activities of the Supreme Court” took place at the Supreme Court.
• Participants examined the practical implications of AI regulation, ethical challenges, cyber hygiene issues, and real examples of AI integration into legal work.
• The purpose was to teach staff to critically assess generated content and evaluate AI outputs and use prompts responsibly.

Джерела: [4]

Systemic seminars of the National School of Judges (2024–2025)

• NSJU became the main driver of digital education. During 2024–2025, a series of standardised training sessions were conducted, including “Digital Literacy of the Judge’s Assistant”
• (https://nsj.gov.ua/ua/pidgotovka-pratsivnikiv-aparativ-sudiv/programi-pidgotovki-pratsivnikiv-aparativ-sudiv-2021-rik/5-grudnya-2025-r-programa-dlya-pomichnikiv-suddiv-ta-pratsivnikiv-aparativ-sudiv-tsifrova-gramotnist-pomichnika-suddi-ta-pratsivnika-aparatu-sudu) and “Information and Digital Competence of the Judge’s Assistant”
• (https://nsj.gov.ua/ua/news/tsifrova-kompetentnist-suchasnogo-pomichnika-suddi-must-have-profesii ).
• During these events, staff of local and appellate courts studied the possibilities of optimising routine tasks through AI, while at the same time focusing on maintaining information security and responsibility for work results.

Джерела: [5] [6]

NSJU training sessions in cooperation with the EU Project “Pravo-Justice”: Electronic evidence and privacy

• At the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, NSJU, jointly with the EU Project “Pravo-Justice”, implemented a series of training sessions entitled “Specific Features and the Special Legal Status of Electronic Evidence: Contemporary Challenges”.
• These training modules focused on emerging technological risks, in particular the threats of de-anonymisation of individuals through the application of AI to judicial materials.
• Judges studied practical cyber hygiene protocols and practical approaches to handling AI-generated digital evidence (for example, deepfakes).

Джерела: [7]

Council of Europe HELP training programmes in Ukraine

• In March 2026, a specialised tutored course of the Council of Europe HELP Programme, “Personal Data Protection in the Publication of Judicial Decisions”, adapted to the new challenges of AI, was launched in Ukraine.
• This course teaches judges to balance openness of justice with the protection of privacy in an era when AI algorithms are capable of carrying out “mosaic de-anonymisation”.
• Judges study the European legal framework (including new GDPR-related approaches) in order to prevent unauthorised profiling of parties to judicial proceedings.

Джерела: [8]

Training supported by the CoE and the Rule of Law Hub

• In March 2026, NSJU, together with the Council of Europe and the Rule of Law Hub, held an intensive training session entitled “The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Judicial Practice”.
• Participants focused on the evolution of legal approaches, examined national soft law acts, and discussed possible models for the use of AI in judicial practice, the related legal risks, and the importance of human oversight.
• A separate module was devoted to the use of AI for systematising the case-law of the ECtHR and the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, subject to meaningful human oversight.

Джерела: [9]

Professional discussion by the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ukrainian Bar Association

• On 27 February 2026, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, jointly with the Ukrainian Bar Association, held a large-scale educational event entitled “Artificial Intelligence in the Work of a Lawyer and in Judicial Proceedings: Opportunities, Limits, Responsibility”.
• The event became a platform for exchanging experience among judges, lawyers, and developers. Participants were trained in the proper application of practical guidance on the safe use of AI, identified permissible limits for the use of algorithms in drafting claims, and analysed judicial case-law concerning lawyers’ liability for AI “hallucinations”.

Джерела: [10]

Academic workshop at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

• Education in the field of AI must rely on academic research. On 20 November 2025, the workshop “Rule of Law and AI Challenges” took place at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
• During the event, the concept of “Benchmarking Justice” was presented in Ukraine for the first time, teaching legal professionals to test leading AI models for logic, accuracy (resistance to hallucinations), the ability to analyse large-scale data, and mathematical precision for the purposes of the administration of justice.

Джерела: [11]

Academic integrity: implementation of the GAIDeT mechanism

• In November 2025, an international conference took place at Lviv University of Trade and Economics, dedicated to European standards of education for future legal professionals.
• The main topic was the implementation of the GAIDeT taxonomy (Generative AI Delegation Taxonomy) in higher education.
• This taxonomy encourages law students to use AI transparently and responsibly, while preserving full intellectual responsibility for the legal content of their work.

Джерела: [12]

Adaptation of the UNESCO guide “AI Essentials for Judges” (2026)

• In 2026, the UNESCO guide “AI Essentials for Judges” is planned to be integrated into training programmes for judges and court staff.
• This document was developed as a concise practical guide to familiarise judges and lawyers (who are not IT experts) with basic concepts, algorithmic bias, and cybersecurity risks.
• It teaches how to preserve human control (Human-in-the-Loop) over the final judicial decision.

Джерела: [13]

International IACA webinar: AI in court administration

• On 24 February 2026, an international webinar was held, organised by the International Association for Court Administration (IACA) jointly with the EU Project “Pravo-Justice”.
• Speakers from Ukraine, Singapore, and the United States shared practical experience and trained court staff. The main topics included the implementation of generative AI in case-law databases, the development of Model Regulations on AI for court administrators, and ensuring effective data management in courts.

Джерела: [14]

Open online digital literacy course on the Diia.Education platform

• To ensure a basic level of knowledge across the legal community and among court administration staff, the state course “ChatGPT: Your Personal Assistant for Work, Study and Life” is being actively used.
• This course teaches the principles of prompt engineering, the use of AI for data analysis, and, most importantly, the rules of information security (which data must categorically not be entered into public AI services in order to avoid the leakage of personal and official data).

Джерела: [15]

Innovative training formats: NSJU podcast “Justice 2035”

• The National School of Judges of Ukraine uses modern media formats for judicial training. Episode No. 18 of the video podcast “Justice 2035: Between Law and Code” has become a useful format for informal professional learning.
• In the podcast, experts and judges discuss in an accessible way the main challenges of the digitalisation era, explaining that AI must be a tool created by humans and for humans, designed to free up judges’ time for resolving complex legal issues, rather than a means of replacing judicial reasoning with technological output.

Джерела: [16]

Discussion panels on strategic challenges in justice

• On 19 March 2026, within the framework of the HELP tutored course, a panel discussion entitled “Challenges in the Judiciary and the Prosecutor’s Office in Connection with the Development of AI” took place.
• The discussion panel format allows judges to discuss the most pressing issues: the limits of permissible AI use, the problem of “shadow AI” (when court staff use technologies without the knowledge of management), and the use of tools for semantic search and identifying inconsistencies in case-law.

Джерела: [17]

Knowledge Sharing Platform developed jointly with the ECtHR

• As part of broader educational and information-sharing cooperation, the Supreme Court of Ukraine, jointly with the ECtHR (and with the support of SIDA), launched the Ukrainian-language version of the “Knowledge Sharing Platform”.
• This platform is a powerful educational tool that enables Ukrainian judges to gain immediate access to relevant case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. The platform significantly facilitates judges’ self-education and the application of the Convention in daily practice.

Джерела: [18]

Round tables on the implementation of EU law (March 2026)

• On 13 March 2026, NSJU held a round table entitled “European Union Law and Its Impact on the Justice System of Ukraine”.
• A separate section was devoted to training judges on European standards in the field of AI (AI Act). Judges studied relevant case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (cases concerning automated scoring, PNR data collection, and the right to be forgotten) in order to understand how these legal approaches will shape the future development of the Ukrainian justice system in the context of European integration.

Джерела: [19]

PREVIOUS RESEARCH AND AUTHOR’S CONTRIBUTIONS

• Bernaziuk Ian. Artificial intelligence in the Ukrainian judiciary: charting the course under the digital gavel https://court.gov.ua/eng/supreme/pres-centr/news/1891488
• Bernaziuk Ian. Artificial Intelligence and The Judicial System Of Ukraine: Results Of Cooperation In The Past Year https://court.gov.ua/storage/portal/supreme/prezentacii_2025/AI_Ukraine_bernaziuk.pdf
• Bernaziuk Ian. Benchmarking Justice: Can AI Uphold the Rule of Law? (20.11.25) https://court.gov.ua/storage/portal/supreme/prezentacii_2025/156_AI_Benchmarking_Justice_bernaziuk.pdf
• Bernaziuk Ian. Artificial Intelligence in the Ukrainian Judiciary: Charting the Course Under the Digital Gavel https://constitutionalist.com.ua/artificial-intelligence-in-the-ukrainian-judiciary-charting-the-course-under-the-digital-gavel
• Bernaziuk Yan, Barikova Anna. Discretion in Applying Provisions of Law: Linguistic Prospects for AI and Machine Learning. ECS Transactions, 2022, 107(1), pp. 18545–18558 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/10701.18545ecst

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