Building Institutions in Your Pocket

In Kenya, most land and property disputes are resolved outside formal courts, yet rising land values and legal reforms have increased the stakes associated with unclear property rights. Informational and procedural barriers often determine dispute outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged groups. This project evaluates whether an AI-based legal information tool can improve access to justice by lowering these barriers.

By piloting and testing an existing AI-based legal information system, developed with the Swedish legal technology company Legora and implemented in partnership with local legal aid and paralegal organizations, the project examines whether AI-enabled legal guidance improves legal knowledge, documentation quality, procedural compliance, dispute trajectories, costs of justice, and perceived fairness. The intervention focuses on frontline legal intermediaries—particularly community paralegals and customary adjudicators such as chiefs—who mediate disputes in settings where formal law and customary institutions coexist.

Through the pilot, the researchers will adapt the system to the Kenyan legal and institutional context, improving integration into legal aid workflows and ensuring outputs reflect both Kenyan statutory law and relevant customary practices. The main research question is whether AI can function as a scalable legal infrastructure that complements existing justice institutions and improves dispute resolution outcomes.