Online Courts and the Future of Justice

by Richard Susskind

Overview

Our court system is struggling. It is too costly to deliver justice for all but the few, too slow to satisfy those who can access it. Yet the values implicit in disputes being resolved in person, and in public, are fundamental to how we have imagined the fair resolution of disputes for centuries. Could justice be delivered online? The idea has excited and appalled in equal measure, promising to bring justice to all, threatening to strike at the heart of what we mean by justice.

With online courts now moving from idea to reality, we are looking at the most fundamental change to our justice system for centuries, but the public understanding of and debate about the revolution is only just beginning.
In Online Courts and the Future of Justice Richard Susskind, a pioneer of rethinking law for the digital age, confronts the challenges facing our legal system and the potential for technology to bring much needed change. Drawing on years of experience leading the discussion on conceiving and delivering online justice, Susskind here charts and develops the public debate.

Against a background of austerity politics and cuts to legal aid, the public case for online courts has too often been framed as a business case by both sides of the debate. Are online courts preserving the public bottom line by finding efficiencies? Or sacrificing the interests of the many to deliver cut price justice? Susskind broadens the debate by making the moral case (whether online courts are required by principles of justice) and the jurisprudential case (whether online courts are compatible with our understanding of judicial process and constitutional rights) for delivering justice online.

Includes a substantial new chapter updating the book with the developments in online courts since the onset of Covid-19.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780192849304
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/02/2021
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 6.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Richard Susskind, OBE FRSE DPhil LLB FBCS; Honorary Professor, Faculty of Laws, University College London; Visiting Professor in Internet Studies, Oxford Internet Institute; Emeritus Law Professor, Gresham College; IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England; President of the Society for Computers and Law

Professor Richard Susskind OBE is an author, speaker, and independent adviser to international professional firms and national governments. He is President of the Society for Computers and Law, IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England, and Chair of the Advisory Board of the Oxford Internet Institute. His numerous books include the best-sellers, The End of Lawyers? (OUP, 2008) and Tomorrow's Lawyers (OUP, 2013), his work has been translated into more than 10 languages, and he has been invited to speak in over 40 countries.

Table of Contents

PART ONE - CONTEXT1. The case for change2. Advances in technology3. Thinking strategically4. Legal theory of courts5. Physical, virtual, online hearings6. Access to justice revisitedPART TWO - ARCHITECTURE7. The vision8. Online guidance9. Assisted argument10. Containment11. Online resolution by judges12. Civil, criminal, family disputes13. Case studiesPART THREE - THE CASE AGAINST14. Economy-class justice15. Adversarial v investigatory16. Open justice and fair trial17. Face-to-face justice18. Digital exclusion19. Loss of majesty20. Public sector technologyPART FOUR - THE FUTURE21. Machine learning and prediction22. Technology-mediated negotiation23. Artificial intelligence24. Telepresence, augmented reality and virtual reality25. The role for human beingsFurther Reading

Editorial Reviews

"In summary, Susskind's latest book is another extraordinary contribution to justice reform. It is an engaging work that will hopefully spark debate and reform. It is written with a lively tone and provides much food for thought about what our justice systems could look like now and into the future." — Tania Sourdin, University of Newcastle, Australia, Journal of Law and Society

"... remains the most necessary and pressing legal text for every court user given the current climate... is not just for those with the power to effect change, it is for every single user who works in our court system... We have been given a miraculous opportunity to make a hundred years-worth of progress in less than a generation. We all have the duty to make this opportunity count, not just to turn up to work, make our money, and go home. Online Courts must be the foundation for all conversations, immediate and long term, about the future of our justice system. " — Joseff Morgan, Counsel

From the Publisher