Digital Technology and Justice: Justice Apps

Tania Sourdin · Jacqueline Meredith · Bin Li

Nov 2020 · Routledge

About this ebook

Justice apps – mobile and web-based programmes that can assist individuals with legal tasks – are being produced, improved, and accessed at an unprecedented rate. These technologies have the potential to reshape the justice system, improve access to justice, and demystify legal institutions. Using artificial intelligence techniques, apps can even facilitate the resolution of common legal disputes.

However, these opportunities must be assessed in light of the many challenges associated with app use in the justice sector. These include the digital divide and other accessibility issues; the ethical challenges raised by the dehumanisation of legal processes; and various privacy, security, and confidentiality risks.

Surveying the landscape of this emergent industry, this book explores the objectives, opportunities, and challenges presented by apps across all areas of the justice sector. Detailed consideration is also given to the use of justice apps in specific legal contexts, including the family law and criminal law sectors. The first book to engage with justice apps, this book will appeal to a wide range of legal scholars, students, practitioners, and policy-makers.

About the author

Tania Sourdin is the Dean of the University of Newcastle Law School and was previously the Foundation Chair and Director of the Australian Centre for Justice Innovation (ACJI) at Monash University in Australia as well as the author of more than 120 books, articles, and chapters. In the past two decades, she has conducted qualitative and quantitative research projects into aspects of the dispute resolution and justice systems in a number of courts and tribunals in Australia and overseas.

Jacqueline Meredith is a Sessional Academic at Newcastle Law School and a PhD candidate at Melbourne Law School. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons 1, University Medal) from the University of Newcastle and a Bachelor of Civil Law (Dist) from the University of Oxford. In addition to work carried out on various research projects exploring the intersection of law and technology, Jacqueline has also published in the areas of labour law, medical law and ethics, and legal education.

Bin Li is Associate Professor of Law at Beihang University in China, previously known as Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA). His research interests include the technological impact on dispute resolution processes and access to justice issues.