EU Judicial Procedures and Case Law Databases: What’s Going On

and What May Lay Ahead?

Elena Alina Ontanu Marco Velicogna

Law via the Internet 2018 Conference

Knowledge of the Law in the Big Data Age 12 October 2018, Florence, ITTIG-CNR

Me-CODEX is supported by

the Justice Programme of

the European Union

Judicial Procedures & Aggregation of Data

• Access to European and national legislation and case law is of paramount importance for the stability of economic activities and upholding the rule of law

• The aggregation and dissemination of legal data is key in sharing knowledge, enhance mutual trust, and contributing to common understanding and practices in the application of European procedures

Are databases a solution to improve the application of European procedural instruments,

forwarding their use and creating a common understanding?

Legal Databases Creation (1/2)

• Laborious process of creation (selecting cases, structuring information, complying with privacy requirements)

• Need of translation

• Relying on access to primary access to cases and case law

• High costs and resources demanding

• Maintenance, sustainability, and continuity issues

Legal Databases Creation (2/2)

• Providing access to national case law & legislation related to European procedures

• Raising awareness, encouraging exchanges, and supporting common interpretations and mutual trust

• No interoperability between existing initiatives (e.g. country or project specific)

Databases: Main Data Perspective

Sentences Databases

Sentences

Metadata

Procedure

Legislation

Correlation case law

Summaries in other languages

Key words

National Databases (1/6)

National Databases (2/6)

National Databases (3/6)

National Databases (4/6)

National Databases (5/6)

National Databases (6/6)

EU Dedicated Portals (1/3)

EU Dedicated Portals (2/3)

EU Dedicated Portals (3/3)

Technology Input

• Technology supported solutions – Rendering electronic access to collections of case law datasets (e.g.

EUFam)

– Direct electronic support and communication via ICT with professional bodies and courts

• Technology based solution – Integrated electronic registration and handling of the claim resulting in

an automatic registration of cases in the database (e.g. national or European)

– Automatisation of certain steps (anonymization of procedural documents and judgment, extent of information access and information characteristics, personalising access to information)

A possible role of e-CODEX in EU judicial procedures caselaw

databases creation and management?

EU level Member state BMember state A

Claimant Court

Commonexchangeplatform

National domain National domainCross-border domain

National Gateway

What does e-CODEX Stand for?

An infrastructure for safe transmission of documents and information between national e-justice systems

Supports semantic interoperability

Supports communication exchanges with a legal value in cross-border procedures

Supports the mutual recognition of electronic signatures and national identifications systems

Structured Data via Standard Forms

Structured Data via XML (e-Justice Portal)

An Integrated Approach to National Initiatives

• e-CODEX support?

– e-handled EU procedures database

– centralising project solutions & connecting national databases developments behind the e-Justice Portal as a single entry point

• Technology based solution that derives data from XML details of the procedure

• Achieving standardisation of data and information across national justice systems that directly feeds into the system database

• e-CODEX ‘produces’ structured documents & data (XML & XSDs) may allow: – Anonymising (full/partial)

– Better & ‘smart’ searching

– Additional data generated during the procedure can enrich the database

– Multilingual data by default through semantic interoperability

– Diminishing collection costs and complexity of data structure

• Secure access to data on demand – Depending on categories of users

– Roles and access

– Requests for Access Authorisation management

• Authorisation to publish management?

• Smarter services through e-Justice APIs?

From Databases to e-Codex

• An e-CODEX/e-Justice database building on the European ‘produces’ structured data (XML and XSDs) can certainly support practitioners in their interpretation and application of the regulations

• Central or central and national debases structure • Legal implications of building such database should be

analysed • Contribute to creating a common understanding and

practice in the application of the European procedures • Facilitate correlations between various interpretations,

characteristics of the cases, outcome of the procedure • However, such developments require also a significant

number of cases that can be automatically included in the database

Concluding Remarks