Abstract
The administration of justice is fundamental to the rule of law and democratic governance. In Nigeria, however, the justice delivery system continues to face persistent challenges, including excessive case backlog, prolonged delays in adjudication, inadequate judicial personnel, poor record management, limited access to legal research resources, and increasing litigation. These challenges undermine public confidence in the judiciary and impede the constitutional guarantee of fair hearing within a reasonable time. The emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Generative AI) presents an opportunity to improve judicial efficiency without compromising judicial independence. Technologies such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini and Claude are capable of supporting legal research, document summarization, drafting of legal opinions, case management, court transcription, language translation and judicial administration. Nevertheless, the deployment of these technologies raises concerns relating to confidentiality, algorithmic bias, transparency, accountability, cyber security and professional ethics. This paper adopts a doctrinal methodology to examine the prospects and challenges of integrating Generative AI into Nigeria's justice system. It analyses relevant constitutional provisions, statutes, judicial decisions. The paper concludes that Generative AI should function as a judicial support tool rather than a replacement for judicial decision-making and recommends the adoption of a comprehensive Nigerian Judicial Artificial Intelligence Policy, legislative reforms, judicial capacity building and ethical safeguards to facilitate responsible AI deployment.