INTRODUCTION

This chapter analyzes electronic proceedings, online disputes resolution, artificial intelligence and access to public information. It is divided into six main sections.

Section 2 refers to electronic proceedings and the general tendency to abandon paper as a form of communication support, examining the Small Claims Procedure and the European Order for Payment Procedure.

Section 3 is dedicated to the analysis of online disputes resolution mechanisms, paying particular attention to the recent experience of the United Kingdom with the “Online Court.”

Section 4 focuses on the scope and challenges of artificial intelligence as an instrument in case management and issues resolution, highlighting examples of its application within the framework of Brazil’s and Colombia’s Constitutional Courts.

Section 5 points towards the implication of these new technologies for citizens in terms of access to public information, offering as an example the experience of the Justice Studies Center of the Americas and its Index of Online Access to Judicial Information.

Section 6 comprises a sort of review involving some of the advantages, risks, and challenges posed by the implementation of new technologies in judicial proceedings.

Finally, section 7 aims at presenting some reflections in terms of assessment and looks into the future.

Before proceeding, some clarification is required. There are a number of issues that, although considered to be within the framework of “application of new technologies in judicial proceedings”, are not addressed in this chapter. Prominent among these are the problems related to e-discovery, the management of evidence by the parties in preliminary instances, the use of information acquired by cameras placed inside vehicles and other similar devices, and the evaluation of evidence through artificial intelligence. The reason for not addressing such issues is that they are addressed by Professors Sugiyama and Picó in their contributions in this book.

2. THE FIRST DIMENSION: ELECTRONIC PROCEEDINGS AND THE TENDENCY TO ABANDON PAPER AS COMMUNICATION SUPPORT

As explained by Talmadge at the beginning of 2000 regarding the U.S. Courts of Appeal, the work by then was developed in a similar fashion to what happened in many courts around the world at the dawn of the twenty-first century: