Justice as a gamechanger

Today I was interviewed by the agile Nerds of Law Katharina Bisset und Michael Lanzinger for their podcast. As often, the question was, will legal tech become more widespread? What will that mean for the legal profession?

For the most part, there are fairly balancing answers to that question. For once, I'd like to spin a polarizing thought:

"The gamechanger" par excellence in Austria was the justice system. It began deep in the 20th century with the introduction of the form-based dunning action and the digitization of the land register, and a little later the company register. Mandatory electronic legal transactions with the courts gave Austria a decades-long head start. What if the justice system were once again the driving force, and what might that look like?

A thought experiment: laws would be written in machine-readable German, i.e., with clear logical relationships and well-defined terms. There would even be room for discretionary leeway, but we would have to dispense with undefined legal terms and systematic loopholes. The jurisprudence of all courts would be analyzed in depth by machine and connected to the new laws by means of connectors. THAT would be a game changer, but one that would not please many of those involved in the legal system (lawyers, judges, even experts), because many court proceedings could be automated or simply eliminated.

Is the idea absurd? No, research on legal language is plentiful. The bigger issue would certainly be the connection of the jurisdiction, but at least it would not fail today because of the computing power.

Not to be misunderstood: This is not a proposal, but a thought experiment. But the underlying thesis is a fact: Digitization in Austria runs through the justice system!