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Published (non-binding, current)Non-binding · Guidelines / framework

European Ethical Charter on the use of Artificial Intelligence in judicial systems and their environment

Record COE-03 · CEPEJ(2018)14

Issued by
European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), Council of Europe
Jurisdiction
Council of Europe
Level · region
International · Europe
Published / adopted
2018-12-04
Language
English, French
Official identifier
CEPEJ(2018)14

Summary

Charter adopted by the Council of Europe's European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) that sets five principles for AI tools and services processing judicial decisions and data: respect for fundamental rights, with ethical-by-design or human-rights-by-design approaches; non-discrimination; quality and security, with certified sources, traceable processing and secure environments; transparency, impartiality and fairness, with external audits and possible certification by independent authorities; and user control, so that justice professionals can review results and parties are told of AI processing and can object and have a court hear their case.

Safety topics

human oversighttransparency & labellingevaluation & testingpublic-sector use

Status notes

Adopted at the CEPEJ's 31st plenary meeting in Strasbourg on 3-4 December 2018; the document is dated 3 December 2018. It is addressed to public and private stakeholders that design and deploy such tools and to public decision-makers responsible for the legislative or regulatory framework, and says the use of these tools in criminal matters must be considered with the greatest reservations to prevent discrimination based on sensitive data. The principles are to be applied, monitored and evaluated regularly, and independent authorities could periodically assess their endorsement. An in-depth study on the use of AI in judicial systems and a glossary are appended. Council of Europe Publishing issues it as a 79-page publication (2019).

Sources

Open the official source https://book.coe.int/en/computers-and-law/7842-european-ethical-charter-on-the-use-of-artificial-intelligence-in-judicial-systems-and-their-environment.html

Secondary source: https://www.questionegiustizia.it/data/doc/1804/cepej_ethical_charter_ia_en-pdf.pdf

Local copy

Archived. A linked file (https://book.coe.int/en/computers-and-law/8554-european-ethical-charter-on-the-use-of-artificial-intelligence-in-judicial-systems-and-their-environment-greek-version.html) was not a PDF and was skipped. A linked file (https://book.coe.int/en/international-law/7104-use-of-information-technology-in-european-courts.html) was not a PDF and was skipped. Last attempt 2026-10-17 18:18:48 UTC

Official source (third-party copy, not published) archive/COE-03/2026-10-16/official.html
Retrieved 2026-10-16 12:57:20 UTC
SHA-256 cf07295d632a83937951e39a357f1bc43b56de61a6de98c138e13dd0c5cd3df2
Secondary source (third-party copy, not published) archive/COE-03/2026-10-16/secondary.pdf
Retrieved 2026-10-16 12:57:31 UTC
SHA-256 31401e6f2eb31c829925c49c4d9a370fa4ce96223ada9fca92c7f30354425ff6

Verification

A
The instrument's own official text, or an official register, was stored and confirms the title, date and status. checked 2026-10-17 · official-url-fetched
Stored the Council of Europe Publishing page for the charter on book.coe.int, which confirms the title, CEPEJ as author, the adoption on 4 December 2018, the five principles and the contents; book.coe.int counts as official through its .int domain. Also stored a full copy of the charter document CEPEJ(2018)14 from questionegiustizia.it (secondary: the site of an Italian legal journal), which gives the identifier, the plenary meeting and the full wording of the principles. The official PDF on rm.coe.int (https://rm.coe.int/ethical-charter-en-for-publication-4-december-2018/16808f699c, the candidate URL) answered 403 and is not stored; official_identifier, the notes on the addressees, criminal matters and application, and the details of the principles in the summary rest on the secondary copy until the official PDF is stored by a browser retry or provided as a document. The French and Greek editions are listed on the publishing page but were not stored.
Second check: Independent check by Claude Code (claude-sonnet-5-5), 2026-10-17: 8 field(s) supported.

History

  1. 2026-10-17Re-verified against its sources, no change — pipeline run 2026-10-17-recheck-europe-1 (recheck), candidate COE-032026-10-17-recheck-europe-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
  2. 2026-10-16Added to the register — found in pipeline run 2026-10-16-discover-leads-2018, candidate C003 (COE/repository)2026-10-16-discover-leads-2018 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Citation

European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), Council of Europe. European Ethical Charter on the use of Artificial Intelligence in judicial systems and their environment [CEPEJ(2018)14]. 2018-12-04. https://book.coe.int/en/computers-and-law/7842-european-ethical-charter-on-the-use-of-artificial-intelligence-in-judicial-systems-and-their-environment.html. Status: Published (non-binding, current); verified 2026-10-17 (level A). Local copy archive/COE-03/2026-10-16/official.html retrieved 2026-10-16 12:57:20 UTC, SHA-256 cf07295d632a83937951e39a357f1bc43b56de61a6de98c138e13dd0c5cd3df2. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record COE-03.

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