Groundwork for Assessing the Legal Risks of Cyberjustice
Canadian Journal of Law and Technology, Forthcoming
16 Pages Posted: 23 Sep 2009
There are 2 versions of this paper
Groundwork for Assessing the Legal Risks of Cyberjustice
Groundwork for Assessing the Legal Risks of Cyberjustice
Date Written: July 1, 2009
Abstract
The interface through which individuals gain access to justice used to be based on oral procedures, then on writings, but is now at the dawn of a new medium: information and communication technology. This electronic medium, with its inherent characteristics and its potential, is shaking the relative immutability of plurisecular legal systems. We have every reason to think that this change in medium will affect the Law in general and rights in particular. At the same time, legal systems can clearly be improved by the use of new information and communication technology - in fact, ICT usage in the judiciary (“cyberjustice”) is constantly growing. There is therefore a need to better understand the impact the electronic medium will have on the law. The notion of risk has a “transactional” aspect: it implies the conditions under which it is or isn’t acceptable. Risk can be subjected to measures to mitigate its probability or potential impact. In the case of a cyberjustice system, risks are a direct consequence of design (both technical and organizational), which, in turn, can be modified to minimize the risk. The proposed method for assessing the legal risks of cyberjustice systems is based on the pairing of technical features with the basic tenets of the justice system, i.e. the basic rights, values and underlying principles of said system, all of which are generally well studied. We identified these tenets as the object of legal risks and, therefore, as likely to be affected by a change in medium. This deductive approach allows us to make a systematic assessment of cyberjustice systems, helps us to avoid presumptions of risk and catastrophic scenarios, and enables risk management solutions to be found and implemented.
Keywords: Cyberjustice, Risk, Information and communication technologies, Justice systems, Basic rights
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