Legal Experts Are Racing to Keep International Courts Ahead of AI
Recent policy changes in the United States, retreating from leading positions in international efforts and aid, led to new relevance of already important questions we had covered in Washington DC, in September 2024, at Georgetown University and with Ambassador Van Schaack.
At a high level, the question remains: When it comes to digital evidence, what is changed (if anything) by widespread cheap and accessible generative AI?
In addition to a health check of our information environments and of its pollution (or not) by deepfakes and AI slop, we must return to existing protocols and guidelines – and interrogate whether and how they should be updated.
Starling did just that on July 11, 2025, teaming up with Fénix Foundation, a non-profit that leverages technology to support international justice, peace, and accountability through legal AI tools and judicial training programs.
We have previously worked with the co-founders of Fénix, on the Hala Protocol for the Collection, Processing, and Transfer of Audio Data, Sabrina Rewald and Emma Irving (they are the main drafters, and I am an adviser). Emma is one of the authors of the Leiden Guidelines on Digitally-Derived Evidence, and Sabrina supported the running of our Washington event in 2024.
Joined by a few additional friends from the academic world, we gathered at Leiden University’s The Hague campus to draft a short-term response to the rapid advances in AI’s sophistication and accessibility – and resulting implications on legal evidence. Our efforts led to a set of “Preliminary Guiding Principles” for immediate use by courts, investigators, lawyers, and fact-finders. .
In addition, we are seeking support for an AI and Digital Evidence Knowledge Hub – an open-source, go-to resource that would contain cases and relevant procedural rules from various jurisdictions around the world. Using a decentralized approach to knowledge collection, it will rely on a wide network of contributors to populate the hub with case law, legal provisions, and best practices.
Notably, the meeting moved beyond a US-centric conversation, incorporating diverse legal traditions and regional experiences to address the complexities of AI-generated content in atrocity crimes prosecutions worldwide.
As legal authorities in Europe and universal jurisdiction countries undertake their important work, we hope to assist them by identifying specific areas where digital evidence guidelines need updating, as well as where professional training can be beneficial.