Explore the vast range of titles available.

Although remote criminal proceedings have existed in Lithuania for some time, they have never been used as extensively as during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic demonstrated that remote criminal proceedings could help prevent the spread of infectious diseases and at the same time facilitate the criminal justice process by eliminating, for example, the need to spend time travelling to the location of the proceedings or wasting other resources. For this reason, even after the COVID-19 pandemic, remote criminal proceedings remained popular. However, the remote criminal process is not a neutral substitute for the in-person criminal proceedings. It has an impact on the traditional paradigm of criminal proceedings that is not always positive. This article discusses the regulation of remote criminal proceedings in Lithuania by presenting the findings of an empirical study of Lithuanian lawyers’ perspectives on the remote criminal process which surveyed more than 100 Lithuanian lawyers (judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and pre-trial investigation officers). The article discusses the main advantages and disadvantages of remote criminal proceedings noted by the professionals and identifies legal problems caused by such mode of proceedings. The paper seeks to demonstrate that the development of remote criminal proceedings should be carried out with caution, taking into account its impact on the quality of criminal proceedings and the rights of the participants.

This article examines the concepts and theoretical elements of e-administration applied to the justice sector, and describes the progress of the process carried out by the Judiciary Council regarding the implementation of electronic management for the application of e-Justice in Ecuador. In this way, it can be said that the achievements reached so far are insufficient to offer an optimal and secure service, adapted to these changing times and without waiving the guarantees of citizens' rights. Keywords: Electronic administration; e-Government; ICT; e-Justice; Judiciary Council. 1. En un ámbito más específico, la administración de justicia incorpora las tecnologías de la información y el conocimiento en su funcionamiento interno y en sus relaciones con los operadores jurídicos y los ciudadanos para el tratamiento de la información, gestión de los expedientes judiciales, relaciones entre los operadores jurídicos y toma de decisiones (Cerrillo, 2007). Las empresas públicas o estatales están cada vez más atraídas por el alcance interno y externo de las transformaciones en su gestión vinculadas al uso de internet, sobre todo, por la posibilidad de mejorar los servicios públicos ofrecidos a los ciudadanos. Respecto a las bases de la administración electrónica, Lara-Navarra, Martínez Usero y Fernández-Cabrera (2004) señalan que existen tres vistas o campos que debemos considerar: a) aspectos jurídicos: normas regulatorias acerca de los procedimientos, normas técnicas de interoperatividad, estructura organizativa, accesibilidad, protección de datos, ciberseguridad, entre otros; b) aspectos técnicos: tecnología tipo, certificados y firma

The aim of the e‐Justice strategy is to improve the implementation of the right to justice, cooperation between judicial authorities and the effectiveness of justice itself. Much attention has been paid to the computerization of court proceedings. Remote court hearings were recognized and described in the legal acts of the European Union and Lithuania already at the beginning of the second decade of the 21 century. However, this approach has not been widely used due to technical problems and insufficient regulation. The Covid‐19 pandemic affected all life and the economy. In order to preserve the human right to justice, not to interrupt the work of courts, remote court hearings were held. It has been found that in administrative justice, especially when organizing the work of quasi‐judicial structures, such hearings can be applied almost without problems. Therefore, the organization of remote meetings in administrative courts and quasi‐judicial organizations was continued during the non‐ quarantine year, depending on the wishes of the participants in the proceedings. However, the widespread use of teleconferencing and videoconferencing in the work of courts has identified the need to improve Lithuania’s legal framework. The article analyses the peculiarities of remote administrative procedure and legal regulation.

The article deals with certain problems of legal regulation of electronic administrative judicial procedure in the context of the realization of the right to judicial protection. The methodological basis of a scientific article is a set of philosophical, general and special scientific methods. It is indicated that electronic administrative judicial procedure should be attributed to the components of electronic governance. It has been established that the right to appeal to an administrative court and ways to protect violated rights cannot be limited when submitting and considering electronic documents, since the lack of such an opportunity leads to a violation of fundamental human rights, court practice in this matter is given. It has been established that it is the application of a specific method of protecting participants in public law relations of a violated or denied right that is the result of the activity and effectiveness of the legal mechanism for protecting rights when using information and communication technologies in administrative courts. Revealed that these rights protection mechanisms should be applied on the basis of the rule of law, accessibility and transparency, impartiality and independence, including the principles of oral hearing and equality of arms. The analysis of the concepts \"electronic justice\", \"electronic court\" in the scientific literature, national and international legal documents is carried out. The essence of \"electronic administrative judicial procedure\", its elements, stages of implementation in practice are disclosed. Separate directions for improving the legal regulation of electronic administrative judicial procedure regarding the implementation of the right to judicial protection are proposed.

Purpose E-court systems automate court processes and provide better case administration with more effective and efficient justice delivery. This paper aims to present the e-court system in the Sulaimaniyah Appellate Court in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as a case study. It identifies significant improvements after adopting the system. Design/methodology/approach This study used a qualitative approach with an exploratory case study design. Data collected from a triangulation of three sources through structured expert interviews with 30 stakeholders, personal observations by two of the authors, supported by analyzing current relevant literature. R package for Qualitative Data Analysis was the analysis tool. Findings Findings showed 10 improvements that enhanced court efficiency and effectiveness concerning better case administration, a more transparent process and increased court case security. Research limitations/implications This research is limited to improvements after adopting an e-court system. Practical implications This research provides a foundation for practitioners who are on the way to implement the e-court system and serves the decision-makers in the Kurdistan Regional Government to plan future expansion in the region. Originality/value This research focuses on the e-court system in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It is implemented as a first e-service to be a pilot for a broader plan to integrate all appellate courts in other cities in the Kurdistan of Iraq, hence, stepping toward the implementation of e-government.

The smart city literature states that three levels of institutional layers (regulatory, normative, and cognitive) and four typologies of actors (government, universities, citizens, and the private sector) support private initiative for developing smart technologies. Focusing on the emergent phenomenon of smart apps ideated by lawyers’ private initiatives, this paper acknowledges that other factors, including the ubiquity of mobile technologies and the absence of effective public services provided by public institutions, contribute to the institutional and organizational humus necessary for the creation of intelligent technological proposals. In the light of the organizational theory framework, and based on the analysis of the literature on smart cities and e-justice and on the empirical investigation of two Italian lawyers’ apps (Collega and Anthea), this paper identifies the institutional, organizational, and technological conditions under which smart technologies are being developed in high-regulated public institutions’ contexts as justice systems. The findings of the study described in this paper help integrate the contribution of the literature on the topic.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop an evaluation model for National Judiciary Informatics System (NJIS), which is an e-justice system forming part of e-government, based on the models and the theories of information systems (ISs).Design/methodology/approachThe survey was conducted on 8,840 internal users working for judicial services in Turkey. The success of the NJIS as an e-justice system is evaluated using structural equation modeling (SEM).FindingsThe results show that while the most important factor is the latent variable information quality in the SEM created to analyze the satisfaction of internal users using the NJIS, other factors include perceived usefulness (PU), system quality, and service quality, respectively. It is found that design quality has affected directly and positively the perceived ease of use (PEoU) while PEoU has affected the PU in the same manner.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was solely concerned with internal users. Therefore, a more comparative study in which other users such as lawyers and ordinary citizens can be incorporated is suggested. Related to internal user satisfaction of the e-justice system, it is explored whether or not internal users are satisfied with their information processing needs, the system’s efficiency, the number of process steps, technical office services, and the system in general.Originality/valueThe research presents a new developed evaluation model of e-justice system from an internal user perspective. Most evaluation models focus on system-centered evaluation or organizational structure while user-centered evaluation concerning judicial ISs has not been explored yet.

At the EU level, an increasing number of resources are being invested in an attempt to provide better public services through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). While new tools are being designed and implemented, a shift from ‘traditional’ technologies that must be used to provide services to more interactive ‘smart’ technologies is beginning to take place. At the same time, an adequate understanding of the implications of this shift is still missing. This paper focuses on the EU e-Justice experience with the ‘API-for-Justice’ project, which investigates the challenges of opening up the European e-Justice Digital Service Infrastructure to external service providers by means of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). In particular, the exploration of potential services that can be provided by third parties through APIs for Justice shows the potential for a radical redesign of the justice service provision, where, for example, justice services are not requested by the party but are proposed or initiated by smart components of the infrastructure on the basis of inputs from the environment. In this perspective, smart technology research and, in particular, Brenner (2007)’s discussion on law and smart technology help to uncover the still unclear dynamics of change that characterize one of the key pillars of modern society: justice.

The irruption of new technologies has placed us in what is known as the 4.0 in-dustrial revolution; they have had an impact on every aspect of our private lives as well as on public administration, including Justice. Today, there is already a new concept that was born from the introduction of ICTs to law: e-justice. In this context, this article aims, firstly, to place the administration of justice within the framework of what is considered the latest industrial revolution, then it will try to define e-justice taking into account the advantages that its implementation re-presents to approach the contribution of technological innovations to e-justice in Ecuador based on four core uses of ICTs related to the administration of justice: in-formation, management, relationship and decision, according to the classification made by Pere Fabra. The analysis will be carried out from a descriptive and critical perspective, considering regulations in force as well as existing advances in other countries. The methodology of this work is qualitative, theoretical exploratory and are intented as results the progress as well as the challenges of the implementation of ICTs in the administration of justice in Ecuador Las nuevas tecnologías irrumpieron con fuerza y nos han situado en lo que se conoce como la 4.0 revolución industrial; han tenido incidencia directa en cada aspecto de nuestras vidas privadas así como en la administración pública, inclu-yendo a la justicia. Hoy en día, ya podemos hablar de un nuevo concepto que ha nacido de la introducción de las TIC al derecho: la e-justicia. En ese contexto, este artículo pretende en primer lugar, situar a la administración de justicia en el marco de lo que se considera la última revolución industrial, para luego intentar definir la e-justicia desde las ventajas que la implementación de esta representa; en un siguiente apartado, se abordará el aporte de las innovaciones y herramien-tas tecnológicas a la e-justicia en Ecuador, en base a cuatro usos troncales de las TIC relacionadas a la administración de justicia: la información, la gestión, la re-lación y la decisión, conforme la clasificación que hace Pere Fabra. El análisis se realizará desde una visión descriptiva y crítica, considerando la normativa vigente así como los adelantos existentes en otros países. La metodología de este trabajo es cualitativa, teórico exploratoria y se precisan como resultados los avances, así como los retos de la implementación de las TIC en la administración de justicia en Ecuador.

One of the main responsibilities of public institutions is to ensure the safety of its citizens and protection of their rights. When addressing these challenges, particular importance is given to court expert investigations. The European Council raised the task: to create a unified European forensic science area until 2020. In order to carry out this task, it is necessary to achieve cooperation between different countries in the field of forensic science, to implement general forensic science standards. The aim of article is to examine the problems of criminalists’ international cooperation. Lithuanian criminalists joined the process of guidelines implementation for the project of creation of European forensic science area and development of forensic science infrastructure in Europe. Researches of Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) are carrying out the related research since 2005. The article analyses the problems of work organization in expert institutions by analysing the possibility for Lithuania to join the common European forensic science area. The research results show that such work should be coordinated by specific legal acts.