Samuel I. Becher and Benjamin Alarie's Superjustice: Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, out July 30, 2026, from Oxford University Press, argues that AI is already changing how justice is delivered - and that legal institutions are not ready for what comes next. The authors see early uses of AI in courts and law firms as only the visible edge of a much deeper transformation.
AI-assisted judicial drafting is already in use, and lawyers routinely turn to generative tools. Yet the legal system was built for a pre-digital world: it is slow and often inaccessible to many. The book lands as legal professionals are still working out how AI for Legal tools fit into daily practice and professional responsibility.
Why Superjustice is different
Becher and Alarie argue that layering AI onto outdated institutions is not enough. Their proposed alternative, Superjustice, is a personalized, data-driven, and participatory framework designed to deliver more accurate, efficient, and equitable legal outcomes. Instead of bolting AI onto existing structures, the model rethinks how legal decisions are made and who takes part in them.
The book confronts the risks head-on: data governance, algorithmic transparency, privacy, and institutional legitimacy. The authors warn that AI will routinely outperform lawyers and judges, and they argue that legal systems must prepare before that future hardens around institutions built for another age. That places the book's argument in the territory of AI for Government, where courts and regulators are the institutions most exposed to the coming shift.
"The transformation of law is not on the horizon; it is already underway," the authors write. "The question is whether legal institutions will shape the future deliberately or be overtaken by it."
About the authors
Becher is a professor of law at Victoria University of Wellington and a former clerk to the Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court. Alarie holds the Osler Chair in Business Law at the University of Toronto, co-founded the legal AI company Blue J, and previously wrote The Legal Singularity (2023).
Why this matters for legal professionals
The book's practical message is that AI competence is becoming a professional requirement. Lawyers who ignore AI risk being outperformed by tools that already draft documents and analyze cases; lawyers who adopt it without understanding its limits risk building practice around systems they don't control. Becher and Alarie's argument is that preparation - not adoption for its own sake - is the urgent task.
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