Electronic access to justice: From theory to practice and back

Recent empirical researches are showing that e-justice systems are built linking and reshaping heterogeneous components, building blocks of technological, organizational and normative nature. The new comes not much from inventing out of the blue and developing from scratch but form reusing, copying, adapting and hooking together existing components. At the same time, new actors, such as technological partners and network providers make their appearance. Power and organizational borders alter, as 'who-does-what' changes in the translation of procedures from paper to digital and from one form of digital to another. Traditional ICT development and innovation management approaches have serious problems in coping with this complexity. Indeed, new theories are called for. Through the experience of several empirical case studies, this paper looks at e-justice dynamics and ramifications in the attempt to tackle its multi-faced complexity. The purpose is twofold: on the one hand, stimulating the academic discourse on a growingly relevant topic, on the other hand enriching the reflection of practitioners in the perspective of e-justice innovation to support access to justice -and appeal to court- focusing on the specific area of environmental matters.