Legal and ethical issues designing online courts

Abstract

The thesis explores and analyzes how can online courts be best designed to serve the needs of a modern society with different norms and requirements from our current ones and whether the current online courts performing a judicial function effectively. The author will use descriptive and critical methodology, researching the effectiveness of current online courts and descriptive and predictive methodology researching what is the best design of online courts for serving the needs of a society. The result of a study showed, the design of online court requires a well – established online platform with well - structured architecture, creating a comfortable, accessible and understandable environment for its users. Choice of technology changes the way how litigants approach a dispute, communicate with each other and also it affects dispute resolution process. Changes in technology may implement changes in law, social norms, architecture and the market. For the action of online courts needs to create a new regulation that is in line with the online environment, taking into account the principles of justice and values of fairness and equal access to justice of the traditional court procedure. The decision making must not be in power of technology, it is the sole competence of human judges. In order to design and implement online courts successfully, the ethical principles of online dispute resolution must be taken into account.