BOOK REVIEW
ONLINE COURTS AND THE FUTURE OF JUSTICE
By Richard Susskind
ISBN: 978 0 19883 836 4
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
www.oup.com
A STIMULATING DEBATE WHICH IS FASHIONING CHANGE AS ONLINE COURTS EMERGE IN THE 2020s
An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers, Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”, and Mediator
Professor Richard Susskind never fails to surprise us with his excellent new assessment on the future of legal services as we enter the 2020s. There is much of a personal approach to the thorny and controversial subject of what are called “online courts” which can different things to different professionals. One thing, however, is sure- change is on the way as the current systems we use to process justice have to face technological change whether we like it or not.
“Online Court and the Future of Justice” is another, in quite a long line, of books from Richard about what the future holds for his granddaughter (amongst others). Oxford University Press (OUP) are to be congratulated in publishing these texts at a time of change when we just do not know which possible direction, we will end up going in, locally and globally, with the new technologies as they come in.
“Our court system is struggling”, says the author. “It’s 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”.
Inevitably, the question is raised - could justice be delivered online? Yes… and no. Susskind remarks that this 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”. And those are just some of the politer views as lawyers do not like change!
With online courts moving “from idea to reality”, the government and public alike are facing one of the most fundamental changes to our justice system seen for centuries. However, the public’s understanding of it, and debate about this “process revolution” are only just beginning with Susskind’s new book.
For this new work, Susskind, who is described as “a pioneer of rethinking law for the digital age”, confronts head-on the challenges facing our legal system and the potential for technology to bring much needed change. His brings his expertise from years of experience leading discussions (often via OUP) on “conceiving and delivering online justice” and is rightly described here as charting and developing the public debate which will be of interest to a wide legal and lay audience alike.
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.
The book runs to just over 300 pages with an introduction, 28 chapters and a useful checklist on “critical success factors” set out in an appendix at the back. Footnotes are also included at the end together with a bibliography and short index.
The hardback edition of this book was published on 22nd October 2019.
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