NCJ Number
161974
Date Published
1992
Length
452 pages
Annotation
This presentation of the reports presented at a colloquy on the present state and future development of legal data processing systems in European countries focuses on recent developments in legal data processing, particularly systems for the administration of justice.
Abstract
The introductory reports focus on the activities of the Committee of Experts on Legal Data Processing, the development of an information technology strategy for the administration of justice, experiences in Sweden concerning strategies for systems in the judicial field, and a project-oriented approach to electronic data processing systems in court administration. The following systems were presented in demonstrations: Austria's legal information retrieval system; Finland's automated court management system; and Turkey's information retrieval systems for Supreme Court decisions, automated personnel management system, and systems in the penal law sector. The reports from each of the 27 countries represented, including Canada, focus on recent developments in legal data processing for the purpose of determining how these systems can help to accelerate the work of the administration of justice, to modernize it, and to make it more user-friendly. The conclusions presented were adopted by the participants at the close of the meeting. The participants held that modern information technology can accelerate the functioning of the judicial system, adapt it to the needs of modern economic life, and alleviate the workload of judges, prosecutors, and other personnel, while making the justice system more user- friendly. They believed that the Central and Eastern European states in particular could facilitate the reform and modernization of their judicial systems by introducing modern technical means of information processing.