Digitalization of the Judicial System in Romania. Important Strategic Objective and Guarantee for a Modern, Fast and Effective Justice System

Today, digitalization is a notorious topic. The problem is no longer circumscribed to computer science, as an important field of science. Through the effects it produces, digitalization has become a phenomenon that transforms social life, under all its aspects. And, like any transformation, digitalization brings change, a change that it imposes quickly and requires an appropriate reaction. To the point, the adaptation of the public service of justice new challenges is a real need and a process always in progress. From this perspective, for over two decades, in Romania, the justice reform has been aiming for a modern, fast, efficient judicial procedure, attributes achievable only by integrating them into the current information society, based on computer science and similar solutions. Thus, at strategic level, between the fundamental premises of the reform of the judicial system, digitalization would occupy an important place. Equally, important changes would also be made in a concrete dimension, through the proper endowment of the courts and prosecutors' offices, as well as thorough the training of the personnel for their use. The study starts with a necessary exercise in defining the terms, synthetically captures the evolution of reform projects of the last decades, the stage of achievements in the field and treats the problem from the perspective of practical utility, that is, of the benefits of a coherent digitalization process, which implements and develops IT solutions for optimization of work. We insist on understanding by benefits of digitalization: direct assistance of the judge, prosecutor and clerk; court management; communication between courts and litigants; securely managing the information system, with the protection of personal data. As for new technological products, seductively qualified as Smart justice or Cyberjustice, as projections of implementing artificial intelligence in the judicial system, we invite to caution, evoking the need for major social responsibility that the judicial system has and emphasizing the fact that the act of justice must remain an approach by man for man. Justice - even digitized is essentially the justice made by man, with his virtues and weaknesses, helped or assisted by tools to take over his tasks repetitive, routine, time-consuming - so that justice, expected by the litigant, comes harmoniously, with the use of wisdom, of balance, all essentially human attributes.