The Algorithm and the Tribunal
Philosophy to the Rescue and the Threat from Within
Abstract
This article asks whether English law should extend party autonomy to recognize the output of a fully autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) system as a binding resolution of a construction dispute. It argues that the real issue is not current technical weakness, but whether algorithmic decision-making can ever satisfy the conditions of legitimate adjudication so as to justify state-backed enforcement. Drawing on philosophy and doctrine, the article contends that adjudication is a human practice of responsible judgment and that the existing routes to enforcement are unlikely to succeed. It further argues that the greatest threat comes from within: hybrid human-AI decision-making, which risks hollowing out the very conception of judgment itself.
Keywords: AI; algorithmic decision-making; statutory adjudication; arbitration; expert determination; party autonomy; natural justice; construction disputes; public policy.
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