The intersection of AI, digital evidence and war crimes: a case study of the Ukraine war

Abstract

Mobile technologies, social media, and increased connectivity fundamentally reconfigure evidentiary paradigms within international criminal law practice. Evolving technologies- and the enhanced access they provide to war crime investigation and evidence collection have the potential to revolutionise both war crime investigation and evidence collection and have precipitated a profound transformation in investigative methodologies and evidentiary mechanisms. This thesis critically examines the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into war crimes investigations, focusing on the Ukraine conflict as a case study. It explores how AI reshapes evidentiary processes under International Criminal Law (ICL) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL). It applies interdisciplinary analysis grounded in Fairclough’s critical discourse theory (CDA), Lessig’s ‘Code is Law’, and Hart’s legal positivism. The research substantiates how war trampled Ukraine’s AI-driven platforms enhanced evidence collection, pattern recognition, and attribution in conflict zones. However, it also identifies risks, including algorithmic bias, corporate influence over evidentiary infrastructures, and challenges to procedural fairness. The absence of codified international standards for authenticating AI-derived evidence creates jurisdictional and doctrinal normative gaps, threatening the right to a fair trial under the Rome Statute. The thesis advances the development of specific evidentiary rules for AI outputs, stronger transparency obligations for prosecutorial authorities and governance mechanisms to regulate private technology partnerships. Through the Ukrainian example, the study reveals the urgent need to balance technological innovation with foundational legal guarantees, ensuring that digital evidence reinforces, rather than erodes, accountability mechanisms in international justice.