Bridging Justice and Privacy: The Role of the EU AI Act in the Realm of International Criminal Evidence
Keywords:
EU Artificial Intelligence Act, International Criminal Court, Evidence Law, Data Governance, PrivacyAbstract
A pioneering legislative framework, the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act) seeks to regulate high-risk AI systems to guarantee transparency, accountability and user privacy. Though the Act introduces important safeguards, they pose significant challenges for international legal proceedings, particularly for the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has recently announced its goal to incorporate AI into the Court’s workings. The stringent requirements put forth by the Act on data governance, human oversight and ethical compliance will likely impede the ICC’s access to critical AI-generated evidence affecting the delivery of justice. This article analyses the implications of the AI Act using the frameworks in the United States and Germany to highlight existing challenges in the transparency, reliability and accountability of AI evidence. Through this analysis, the article identifies gaps in the AI Act and proposes reforms, including enhanced transparency mandates, conditional data portability, cross-border data-sharing frameworks, and safeguards against the misuse of sensitive data. These measures aim to draw a balance between privacy and public interests, ensuring the effective use of AI-generated evidence in international criminal trials. As AI shapes global justice systems, it is necessary to foster cooperative international frameworks to balance innovation with accountability, which would protect human rights as well as the principles of justice in an AI-driven future.
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