NEWS

Those attending the lecture in Parliament House on Thursday 30 April 2026 were drawn from across the Scottish justice sector, members of the judiciary, representatives of government, colleagues from academia, the legal profession, the third sector, the media, and advocacy organisations.

Addressing the audience the Lord President paid tribute to Sir Geoffrey Vos:

“As Head of Civil Justice in England and Wales, Sir Geoffrey has played a leading role in shaping modern civil justice and in considering how technological change, including AI, may be engaged with responsibly and consistently with judicial values.

“His vast experience, both judicial and administrative, places him in a unique position to address these issues from a practical and principled perspective. It is no overstatement to say that he is one of the judiciary’s most influential champions of digital transformation.” 

During his lecture, Sir Geoffrey Vos argued that artificial intelligence will fundamentally reshape how justice is delivered and that judges and lawyers now bear a responsibility to lay the foundations for justice systems fit for the “machine age”. 

He said:

“Lawyers and judges across Europe and beyond have yet, I think, to come completely to terms with the effect that AI will actually have on the way we deliver justice. Many would like to believe that it will not affect anything judges do very much at all. Many want to believe that justice is so special and that lawyers and judges are indispensable and immune from the ravages of the AI revolution. 

“I am sure it is true to say that justice and justice systems are special, and that humans will continue to have need of human judicial decision-making. Nonetheless, the lawyers and judges of today must embrace technology to deliver justice in a more streamlined way. That delivery must take account of the shorter attention spans and quite different expectations of our current younger generations and of those to come.

“Justice and the rule of law will remain critical in the machine age. But the practices and processes of the 19th century will need to be rapidly adapted to provide relevant digital justice systems fit for the 21st century.”

You can read Sir Geoffrey’s full Speech to the 2026 Judicial Institute Lecture.

The Judicial Institute for Scotland supports judicial office holders at all stages of their careers through education, training, and opportunities for professional development and reflection. It exists to promote consistency, quality, and confidence in the delivery of justice in Scotland, and to provide a forum in which the judiciary can engage thoughtfully with developments that affect the courts and the justice system more broadly.

The first of this series of lectures was held under the auspices of the former Judicial Studies committee in 2012. The lecturer was Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin of the Supreme Court of Canada. In 2013 Lord Judge, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales delivered the lecture. He was followed in 2014 by Albie Sachs, retired Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, in 2016, by the then recently retired Lord President Gill and in 2018 by Judge Tim Eicke of the European Court of Human Rights. In 2024 the lecture was delivered by the Chief Justice of Ireland, Donal O’Donnell.