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JAKARTA (MKRI) —The third session of the Sixth International Short Course of the Association of Asian Constitutional Courts and Equivalent Institutions (AACC) on Thursday, August 10, 2023 talked about “The Judicial System in the Digital Era: Revisiting the Relationship between Democracy and Judicial Independence.” As the first speaker, Justice M. Guntur Hamzah of the Constitutional Court of Indonesia said that modern judiciary should be an inherent legal instrument in a democracy and a necessity for all citizens. It is even a conditio sine qua non for the continuity of law and justice discourse between citizens and judicial institutions. In this context, modern judiciary has become a pillar to ensure that people are not treated arbitrarily by those in power. The modern judiciary plays its role in seeking and ensuring equal access to courts and justice through the use of legal instruments and advanced technology, and is supported by advanced human resources.

In fact, he added, currently all judicial institutions continue to strive and develop in line with the dynamics of society and the rapid progress of science and technology. The development of ICT has significantly accelerated case handling process in courts towards the modernization of the judiciary.

The use of ICT cannot be separated from three most common problems that the judiciary around the world always faces: lengthy case handling, difficult access to courts, and corrupt judges or court employees. Therefore, ICT can support the performance of the judiciary in order to overcome these problems and at the same time encourage and guarantee that justice governance is carried out with full integrity and can be trusted by the public, especially justice seekers.

Digital Transformation in Constitutional Court of Korea

The next speaker, Secretary-General of both the Constitutional Court of Korea and the AACC Secretariat for Research and Development (AACC SRD) Jongmun Park revealed that his Court has undertaken a project on intelligent Constitutional Court system. “To provide easy access and search of our Court’s case law for the general public, who are not legal experts, we have built a service that utilizes intelligent technology to enable users to search case information not only in legal terms but also in everyday language and sentence structures. Furthermore, in response to the pandemic, we have built a video conference room and a video conferencing system, facilitating non-face-to-face video conferencing and video trials,” he explained.

In addition, the Court has established the Korean-English constitutional justice glossary, which allow users to make suggestions and contribute to the development of translations for technical terms in the field of constitutional justice. He believed digital transformation, summed up as “innovation from analog to digital,” profoundly impacts people’s lives, and these changes was evident in the Republic of Korea.

The third session of this short course was concluded by Muhidin, Chief Registrar of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia MKRI. He said it was part of the celebration of the MKRI’s twentieth anniversary aimed at building a synergy of insights to, hopefully, be implemented in the participants’ respective countries and institutions. He hoped that cooperation would continue to develop through such exchange of information.

He also said that through the short course the MKRI also learned from the presenters and participants of the need for democracy, digital transformation, and judicial independence in judicial practices.

“Our democracy has given all citizens voice and rights to participate in decision-making processes. However, the Constitutional Court cannot work alone. There must be collaboration between the judiciary and technology to improve freedom, equality, and justice for all,” he said.

He also added that amid rapid technological advances, we cannot underestimate the importance of digital transformation, of which the Constitutional Court must be at the forefront. It must utilize technology to improve accessibility, transparency, and efficiency of the judiciary. “[We must] use digital innovation to ensure that justice reaches the nooks and cranny of our nation, bridges gaps, and promote inclusivity,” he emphasized.

Author       : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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