Artificial intelligence in judicial education: NSJU among participants in the international TRUST-AI project

On January 13, 2026, representatives of the National School of Judges of Ukraine took part in the inaugural meeting of beneficiaries and associated partners of the international project "TRUST-AI: Promoting Ethical and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in Justice Systems," which is funded under the European Commission's JUST program and implemented with the assistance of the Siracusa International Institute (hereinafter referred to as SII).

The launch of the project was the first step towards the development of systematic cooperation between the National School of Judges of Ukraine and the SII team, as well as other international and national organizations. Among them are institutions that are already reliable partners of the NSJU in the field of judicial education, in particular EJTN, ENM, SSM, and others.

Judicial education institutions from EU countries and candidate countries have also joined the new project: the Belgian Judicial Training Institute, École nationale de la magistrature (ENM), Scuola Superiore della Magistratura (SSM), National Institute of Magistracy (NIM), and the National Institute of Justice of Moldova (NIJ).

During the meeting, participants outlined the key objectives of the project, its conceptual framework, and planned activities. Representatives of TRUST-AI's associated partners also shared their national experiences in applying artificial intelligence technologies in the field of justice, focusing on the challenges, risks, and potential of such solutions.

The event was opened by SII Director Jean-François Toni, who emphasized in his opening remarks the growing relevance of raising awareness among judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and other legal professionals about the use of artificial intelligence technologies. He drew attention to the risks of AI abuse for criminal purposes and its impact on international criminal law practice. In this context, the TRUST-AI project aims to bridge the information gap, strengthen the professional capacity of justice professionals, and build a solid knowledge base on modern technologies and principles of ethical AI use.

In her speech, Ingrid Derveaux, Secretary General of the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN), noted that digitalization is one of the priorities of the new EU Judicial Training Strategy, and that this project is directly linked to its implementation. She emphasized the value of the EJTN's participation in the TRUST-AI project, as it promotes the introduction of best practices in the field of judicial education in Europe.

The National School of Judges of Ukraine was represented at the meeting by Tetiana Fulei, Head of the Department for Research on Judicial Issues and Scientific and Methodological Support for Judicial Education. In her speech, she highlighted Ukraine's existing experience in the application of artificial intelligence technologies and outlined further plans in this area.

In particular, it was noted that the use of AI is provided for in the new Concept of the Unified Judicial Information and Communication System (UJICS), approved by the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine in April 2025. According to the concept, within the framework of the USICS, artificial intelligence can be used to perform the following functions: recognition and classification of documents uploaded to the system; identification of legally significant information entities in texts, depersonalization and masking of confidential information; voicing of court decisions and other documents at the user's request; summarizing the content of documents and checking them for grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors; automatic translation of documents; contextual semantic search for relevant materials and selection of court practice.

The representative of the NSSU also emphasized that the development of electronic courts using artificial intelligence has been identified as one of the priorities of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine for 2026. In particular, this refers to new digital solutions in the “Dія” application. In 2025, the development of “Dія.АІ” and five new services were presented, some of which directly relate to the field of electronic justice.

In conclusion, Tetiana Fulei emphasized the critical importance of training judges and other justice system employees in the use of AI, and also confirmed the significance of the TRUST-AI project for strengthening the institutional capacity of the National School of Judges of Ukraine in implementing the best European and global practices in the field of judicial education.