EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE (CEPEJ)
WORKING GROUP ON CYBERJUSTICE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST)
1st meeting (Strasbourg - videoconference, 27 April 2020)
Report prepared by the Secretariat
Directorate General I - Human Rights and the Rule of Law
1. INTRODUCTION
1. The Working Group on Cyberjustice and Artificial intelligence (CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST) of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) held its 1st meeting on 27 April 2020. Considering the sanitary situation and the fact that the meeting took place via videoconference, election of the new chair of CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST was postponed to a future meeting.
2. The agenda and the list of participants are attached as Appendices I and II respectively to this report.
2. POSSIBLE TOPICS OF FUTURE WORK OF THE CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST
3. The working group, following an exchange of points of view, had decided of a list of possible topics of intervention, as follows:
a. Digitalisation of courts, procedure and files
Access to justice
§ Development of sites/portals/online hubs or online legal clinics for access to the law so that litigants (or potential litigants) can obtain by themselves a certain amount of basic information on their rights
§ Use of chatbots
§ Online service of procedural documents
§ Online seizing of the court by the litigant
Digital procedure
§ How initiate a digital procedure ?
§ When is a procedure considered digitalised? (case brought before a court)?
§ Legal value of a digital procedure
§ Electronic signature
§ Confidentiality of legal documents.
§ Data security: cyber-attacks, hacking, data erasure, computer failure, etc.
§ Data preservation and judicial archives on the internet: cloud/server located locally or abroad/owned by a private company.
Digital court files
§ E-filing
§ Electronic communication of documents (procedural documents, pleadings by lawyers, expert's reports, investigation reports, etc.)
§ Software to be used/Interoperability: ensuring that the digital format used can be used by all
§ Access to the digital file by the litigant
Evidence
§ Audio/video recording of certain parts of the procedure/of hearings and rights of litigants
§ Digitized management of seals to facilitate their storage and allow faster retrieval (barcode, etc.)
Day-to-day management of court
§ Automatic reminder of deadlines to parties
§ Logistics within the court: judges’ availability, organisation of hearings, room reservation, management of supplies, etc.
§ Development of sharing common spaces with all members of a courts, open to lawyers and other professionals
Court HEARINGS
§ Practical guidelines on use of videoconferencing for online court hearings
§ Criteria of use/quality standards/recording
§ Judicial rituals vs new rituals in case of digitalisation of justice
DATA EXCHANGE
§ Best practices for data exchanges between litigants, judges, experts, etc.
Open data in justice
§ Challenges of open data in judicial systems and articulation with the protection of personal data: which data can be made freely accessible? Can everyone consult them? Anonymisation of decisions/parties/judges
§ Competition between private legaltech companies and the State to build these databases
International judicial co-operation
§ Exchange of information between States and judicial authorities in digital form
§ Interoperability between member States
b. Online ADR
§ Respect of fundamental rights (in particular Article 6 ECHR) for persons using online ADR
§ Certification of actors? Labelling?
§ Creation of an online platform attached to a court or a bar or managed by new actors in the sector (legaltech)?
§ Confidentiality of mediation / conciliation when the process is conducted online?
§ Can mediation/conciliation bring results without direct human interaction?
§ Toolkit for training
§ Conducting research (i) on benefits of and challenges for online ADR, (ii) on risks and perspectives of use of artificial intelligence in ADR
c. Enforcement procedures within a digital framework
§ Is it possible to have a completely digitalised enforcement procedure?
§ Ethical issues
§ Access of assets/Electronic seizure/Blockchain
d. Artificial intelligence in justice
Work of judges
§ Private and public tools and algorithms to support judges’ work: how to guarantee transparency and impartiality?
§ Legal search engines: content, improvements, access, etc.
§ Decision support software for judges (e.g. calculating the amount of compensation)/Decision-writing software (e.g. electronic templates for writing judicial decisions).
§ Use of statistics and big data
PREDICTIVE JUSTICE
§ Report on experimentations already carried out in Europe
§ Guidelines on what can be allowed and what should be prohibited, in particular to respect the guarantees of the ECHR
§ The use of machine learning for data analysis (criminal procedure)
Anonymisation of decisions via AI
AI EXPERTS
e. training in the field of cyberjustice and AI
§ Develop training curricula for judges and courts’ staff on cyberjustice and on CEPEJ tools in the field of cyberjustice and AI
f. Networks
§ Creation of a European cyberjustice network/CEPEJ network of cyberjustice contact persons from all CoE member states in order to obtain:
§ an efficient up-to-date exchange of best practices on cyberjustice, e-justice and online justice tools (including digitalization, online connectivity, videoconferencing, automation, use of AI etc.), exchange of related statistics and information on pilots and ongoing cyberjustice projects,
§ a feedback to the CEPEJ and its working groups on necessity of new tools, cooperation projects and other activities;
§ dissemination and testing of CoE and CEPEJ tools on cyberjustice.
g. CYBERJUSTICE in case of health crisis
§ Compatibility between emergency procedural rules and principles of Article ECHR
3. OTHER BUSINESS
a) CEPEJ-Working Groups 2020-2021 terms of reference
4. This new CEPEJ working group on cyberjustice and artificial intelligence (CEPEJ-CYBERJUST) was constituted in the framework of its terms of reference 2020-2021. The distribution of tasks between the CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST and CEPEJ-GT-QUAL will be discussed during a joint meeting to be organized in principle during the next meeting (24-25 September 2020). It was reminded that the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL would be responsible for all issues relating to implementation of the CEPEJ AI Charter, while other issues related to AI would fall within CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST’s tasks.
b) Next CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST meeting
5. The next meeting of the working group CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST will take place on 24-25 September 2020 by videoconference.
- Information by the Secretariat
- Future possible calendar
- Future appointment of the President du CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST
- Exchange of views on the terms of reference 2020-2021 of CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST
- Coordination with the relevant competent bodies, in particular on artificial intelligence
- Future joint meeting with the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL
- Coordination with CAHAI
- Other business
Appendix II : LIST OF PARTICIPANTS / LISTE DES PARTICIPANTS
Pedro ALMEIDA, Legal Adviser, European Affairs Coordination Unit, Directorate-General for Justice Policy, Ministry of Justice, Lisbon, PORTUGAL
Maria Giuliana CIVININI, Judge, member of the Italian Judiciary, President of the Tribunal of Pisa, Pisa, ITALY
Adis HODZIC, Senior Advisor for Statistics, Secretariat of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, BOSNIA AND HERZGOVINA
Martin SCHNEIDER, Counsellor, Federal Ministry of Justice, Vienna, AUSTRIA
Rimantas SIMAITIS, Associate Professor at Vilnius University, Partner at Cobalt law firm, Attorney-at-Law, Arbitrator, Mediator, Vilnius, LITHUANIA
Gregor STROJIN, Advisor to the President, Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA, Apologised / Excusé
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DEPUTY MEMBERS / MEMBRES SUPPLEANTS
Flavien FOUQUET, Chargé de mission pour la transition numérique, Ministère de la Justice, Paris, France
Dusan KUZMANOVIC, Personal Data Protection Officer, Ministry of Justice, Belgrade, SERBIA
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PRESIDENT OF CEPEJ / PRESIDENT DE LA CEPEJ
Ramin GURBANOV, Judge, Baku City Yasamal District Court, Co-ordinator of Judicial Modernisation Project, Baku, AZERBAIJAN
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SCIENTIFIC EXPERTS / EXPERTS SCIENTIFIQUES
Martin HACKL, Chief Digital Officer at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Constitutional Affairs, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice, AUSTRIA
Bojan MURSEC, Director, Center for Informatics, Supreme Court, SLOVENIA, Apologised / Excusé
Ruslan MIRZAYEV (on Mediation and ADR), Mediator at the Office of Compliance Advisor Ombudsman of the World Bank Group and Partner, Adrem Attorneys Law Firm, AZERBAIJAN
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OBSERVERS / OBSERVATEURS
Jacques BUHLER, Secrétaire général suppléant du Tribunal fédéral suisse, Chef des services scientifiques : informatique, bibliothèque et documentation juridique, Chef de projet pour l'introduction du dossier judiciaire électronique et de la communication électronique en Suisse, Lausanne, SUISSE
COUNCIL OF BARS AND LAW SOCIETIES OF EUROPE / CONSEIL DES BARREAUX EUROPÉENS(CCBE)
Simone CUOMO, CCBE Senior Legal Advisor
EUROPEAN UNION OF RECHTSPFLEGER AND COURT CLERKS / UNION EUROPÉENNE DES GREFFIERS DE JUSTICE (EUR)
Wolfgang LAEMMER, President
EUROPEAN EXPERTISE AND EUROPEAN INSTITUTE (EEEI) / INSTITUT EUROPEEN DE L’EXPERTISE ET DE L’EXPERT (EEEI)
Benoit DE CLERCK, Deputy General Secretary / Training projects
Robert RANQUET, Vice President Public Affairs / AI
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF JUDICIAL OFFICERS / UNION INTERNATIONALE DES HUISSIERS DE JUSTICE ET OFFICIERS JUDICIAIRES (UIHJ)
Jos UITDEHAAG, Secrétaire, Pays-Bas
Patrick GIELEN, Huissier de justice, Expert de l’UIHJ, UCCLE, Belgique
EUROPEAN UNION AGENCY FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS / AGENCE DE L’UNION EUROPEENNE POUR LES DROITS FONDAMENTAUX
Matylda POGORZELSKA, Freedoms and Justice Department, Schwarzenbergplatz 11, 1040 VIENNA, AUSTRIA
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SECRETARIAT
DGI - Human Rights and Rule of Law
DGI - Droits de l’Homme et Etat de droit
E-mail: [email protected]
Hanne JUNCHER, Head of the Justice and Legal Co-operation Department / Chef du service de la cooperation judiciaire et juridique,Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 24 37, e-mail: [email protected]
Muriel DECOT, Secretary of the CEPEJ / Secrétaire de la CEPEJ, Tel: +33 (0)3 90 21 44 55, e-mail: muriel.dé[email protected]
Clemence BOUQUEMONT, Administrator / Administratrice, Tel: +33 (0)3 90 21 60 83, e-mail : [email protected]
Eva KONECNA, Secretary of the Group CEPEJ-SATURN / Secrétaire du groupe CEPEJ-SATURN, Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 23 07, e-mail: [email protected]
Artashes MELIKYAN, Secretary of the CCPE and CCJE / Secrétaire du CCPE et CCJE, e-mail: [email protected]
Ioana VOELKEL, Assistant/Assistante, Tel : +33 (0)3 90 21 42 94 ; e-mail: [email protected]