Authors 
Ben Bertelsen, Global DPI Manager, UNDP  
Lara Deramaix, Policy Specialist, UNDP 
D. Christopher Decker, DPI Advisor, UNDP 

Digital technologies can directly benefit 70 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets. This means there is increased potential to drive new interventions to address societal issues, including ones related to justice. From limited capacity of local and national judicial systems, high costs of litigation, complicated court procedures, to a lack of alternate dispute resolution mechanisms, people across countries often encounter these justice-related barriers.  

Notwithstanding, judicial systems that are well-designed (or revamped) with an inclusive digital transformation approach can tackle these barriers of systemic exclusion, improve efficiency and services, and ensure the protection of data privacy and human rights. By being inclusive and intentional by design, governments can ensure everyone, everywhere can benefit equally.  

Below are a few key elements that can be applied to digitally transform judicial service delivery for greater impact: 

• Digitization of paper documentation can lower the overall cost of legal services. This can facilitate the sending and receiving of documents electronically with greater convenience. In addition, it can reduce the financial burden of paying legal practitioners to fill out forms manually, as well as the need for serving or authenticating documents in person.
• Online portals can provide access to legal services outside of typical business hours. This can potentially reduce costs for people who would otherwise need to travel, arrange childcare or take time off from work to go to a courthouse or law office in person.
• Adaptive software can enable more inclusive participation in legal proceedings, such as the use of digital tools to increase accessibility for persons with disabilities and digital translation resources for foreign language speakers.
• Virtual courts can be an effective engagement channel, especially for people living in remote or rural areas. They offer an alternative to in-person appearances and expand people’s choices for legal representation beyond experts living nearby. This can help to reduce geographic and economic exclusion.
• Artificial Intelligence solutions can analyze massive datasets to identify trends with respect to how justice systems function, including identifying patterns of bias and exclusion and suggesting remedial actions that can potentially address and reverse the trends.  

Making the shift from analogue to digital

Within the justice sector, efforts towards widespread digital transformation are often stalled for different reasons. Among them is the lack of focus on changes in the workflows of judges, prosecutors and clerks, and importantly the absence of a human-centred design approach to understand pain points and co-create solutions. Making the shift from analogue to digital requires change-management exercises that are well designed and executed. In addition, these efforts need to be supported by relevant capacity to ensure effective adoption and uptake of digital innovations.

Getting buy-in across different levels is another important facet. For example, judges tend to hold the highest power in court systems, but they are not always digitally savvy nor strong proponents of digital transformation. Transforming judicial systems from analogue to digital thus needs to consider the hierarchy of leadership, as well as cultivate internal digital champions to advocate for and commit to changes. Again, in designing digital solutions, priority should be given to understanding the needs of intended users to accelerate adoption with intuitive, simple and user-friendly features.

Championing approaches in justice across countries

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been supporting digital transformation in the rule of law sector. UNDP’s role has focused on thoughtful change management and building local capacity in digital transformation.  

In the State of Palestine for instance, UNDP supports MIZAN -- a digital court management system serving around 8,000 legal professionals and standardizing court procedures. This system has yielded successful results in enhancing efficiency and transparency. Watch the video below.