Special Workshop Abstract

Digital office environment: Most part of information (with the time—more and more) from the office of judge shall be accessible in electronic form. Information and communication technologies shall ensure data protection and data security. The Judge shall be able to find specific information in the course of legal proceeding. Most part of documents, such as reports, judgments, decisions, writs, lawsuits, and others, shall be easily accessible by the means of information and communication technologies. Here are some sound reasons why the office environment of judge shall be highly digitalized: Eliminates manual work; Saves cost & time; Fast storage & archival of information; Easy to track document movement; Fast search for documents.

New search possibilities of needed information: Nowadays judges can use legal databases of national and international legal information. This can apparently ease the decision making, especially in the cases, where the case concerns the EU. During the case procedure the Judges can use information from national registers. There are possibilities for judge and court personnel staff to use the information from the operational and other legal information databases. These opportunities visibly increase the effectiveness of case investigation and encourage early decision making.

New possibilities of judge’s environment: Possibilities to prosecute some legal activities in the virtual environment will make it possible to avoid the temporizing of case procedure, to reduce outstanding numbers of cases, especially in the cases where the limit is over. New possibilities will guarantee effective cooperation among different countries in the field of interrogation of witnesses. New possibilities of environment will facilitate the job of arbitral court and especially the work of judge in the civil cases. The judge will be empowered to quickly and effectively prosecute trial especially in the cases where the parties (physical or natural persons) are from different countries. Possibilities of virtual judge’s environment will eliminate geographical barrier, which some times is of great importance because of the need to represent the party or witness, interrogate in the trial.