Artificial Intelligence in Sri Lanka’s Legal System: Adoption Barriers and Policy Pathways

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping legal systems worldwide by improving legal research, document review, and case forecasting. In Sri Lanka, where Roman-Dutch law, English common law, and customary law coexist, the legal profession continues to face structural challenges, including heavy case backlogs, limited access to justice, and uneven technological capacity. This study provides the first large-scale, Sri Lanka-focused empirical investigation of AI adoption among legal practitioners, applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Resource-Based View (RBV), and Task-Technology Fit (TTF) framework to a hybrid developing-country legal context. Using a cross-sectional research design, data were collected from 1,500 legal practitioners between September 2024 and February 2025. The study applied quantitative methods (chi-square tests and correlation analysis) alongside qualitative thematic coding. The findings show moderate AI awareness (63.6%) but relatively low adoption (36.3%). AI usage was significantly higher among urban and corporate lawyers (72%) compared with rural and criminal law practitioners (28%). The main barriers to adoption were inadequate infrastructure (45%) and resistance to change (32%). The study identifies practical policy pathways, including infrastructure subsidies, professional training, and regulatory frameworks, to reduce the urban-rural adoption gap and support ethical AI integration. By situating Sri Lanka within the wider debate on legal digital transformation, the findings offer useful insights for other developing legal systems facing similar institutional and technological constraints.