Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Deleted
An associate justice of the Philippines Supreme Court, Antonio Carpio, recently suggested that judges who are computer-illiterate should be fired “for gross ignorance.” [http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=73852] The joking, but edged, remark is a reflection of a serious commitment by the Supreme Court to complete the computerization and Internet connection of all Philippine courts by 2007.
The court, according to Justice Carpio, wants to move all of the country’s 1,583 justices and judges toward use of an e-library (see http://www.supremecourt.gov.ph/elibrary/HTML/Advisory/Advisory_Guidelines.htm) to which all judges would have access in researching and writing their decisions, and to eliminate printed copies of its own decisions and circulars once all judges are computer-literate. To that end, the Supreme Court has a computer-literacy program for judges. Although newer judges get hands-on computer training before taking the bench, the Supreme Court’s chief librarian, Milagros Ong, commented that their concern is “more for old appointees who may not know how to open a compact disc or surf the Internet."
Telling judges that some of them are computer-illiterate is like the old lawyers’ gag of referring to a particular judge as Judge Necessity because “Necessity knows no law.” Both remarks are less likely to cause offense to judges if it’s another judge making the remarks. But computer literacy in any country’s judicial system is actually important not only for improving general research and communications, but for increasing the visibility, transparency, and credibility of that judicial system
as a whole.
When USAID funds and supports computer-literacy training for Afghan judges and court personnel http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/afghanistan/
weeklyreports/072305_report.html ), for example, it improves the odds that others in Afghanistan and elsewhere will perceive the Afghan judiciary as a credible and stable component of government. And when the Philippines (or any other country, for that matter), publishes its judicial decisions electronically, it increases the access to those decisions by lawyers and legal scholars in many parts of the world. Anything that enhances the access to, and visibility of, published judicial decisions for the public and the legal profession is likely to enhance the transparency and respectability of those decisions.
The court, according to Justice Carpio, wants to move all of the country’s 1,583 justices and judges toward use of an e-library (see http://www.supremecourt.gov.ph/elibrary/HTML/Advisory/Advisory_Guidelines.htm) to which all judges would have access in researching and writing their decisions, and to eliminate printed copies of its own decisions and circulars once all judges are computer-literate. To that end, the Supreme Court has a computer-literacy program for judges. Although newer judges get hands-on computer training before taking the bench, the Supreme Court’s chief librarian, Milagros Ong, commented that their concern is “more for old appointees who may not know how to open a compact disc or surf the Internet."
Telling judges that some of them are computer-illiterate is like the old lawyers’ gag of referring to a particular judge as Judge Necessity because “Necessity knows no law.” Both remarks are less likely to cause offense to judges if it’s another judge making the remarks. But computer literacy in any country’s judicial system is actually important not only for improving general research and communications, but for increasing the visibility, transparency, and credibility of that judicial system
as a whole.
When USAID funds and supports computer-literacy training for Afghan judges and court personnel http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/afghanistan/
weeklyreports/072305_report.html ), for example, it improves the odds that others in Afghanistan and elsewhere will perceive the Afghan judiciary as a credible and stable component of government. And when the Philippines (or any other country, for that matter), publishes its judicial decisions electronically, it increases the access to those decisions by lawyers and legal scholars in many parts of the world. Anything that enhances the access to, and visibility of, published judicial decisions for the public and the legal profession is likely to enhance the transparency and respectability of those decisions.
posted by Jon Rusch at 11:57 AM
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