The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Ensuring Fair Criminal Proceedings in Iran: Capacities, Challenges, and Regulatory Requirements

Abstract

The expansion of artificial intelligence over the past decade has transformed the structure of many legal and criminal justice systems and has ushered discussions of fair trial guarantees into a new phase. Characteristics such as processing speed, high accuracy, large-scale data analytics, and learning capabilities have led to the deployment of artificial intelligence across all stages of the criminal justice process—from crime detection, preliminary investigations, and evidentiary analysis to case management and even risk assessment for recidivism. Within Iran’s criminal justice system, the Judicial Transformation Document emphasizes the intelligent use of emerging technologies in the service of justice. Despite demonstrable benefits—such as reducing delays in proceedings, minimizing human error, enhancing law enforcement efficiency, improving evidence identification processes, enabling digital forensic medicine, and increasing transparency—the use of artificial intelligence also entails serious risks. These include the potential amplification of racial and socio-economic biases embedded in training data, violations of privacy, the opacity of algorithmic decision-making, the erosion of judicial independence, and threats to the right to a fair trial. Employing a descriptive–analytical method, this study examines the capacities and challenges of artificial intelligence in Iran’s criminal proceedings. Through an analysis of international human rights instruments, such as the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles (2022), it argues that harnessing the benefits of artificial intelligence is compatible with the principles of criminal justice only when accompanied by a rigorous framework of oversight, transparency, accountability, and anti-bias safeguards.