The highly esteemed Markus Hartung quotes the German Federal Bar Association on Twitter: "BRAK has already made a decisive contribution to this process [i.e. to the digitization] by setting up and operating the (... beA)". He leaves the quote uncommented - but I would like to take it up briefly:
In wide legal circles, the opinion still prevails that the use of word processing and e-mail as well as the use of legal databases is already "the" digitization. If one assumes this, the establishment and operation of a secure document transmission system is undoubtedly a step forward. But it is also only a beginning.
A further digitization of court proceedings will inevitably affect established principles. The immediacy of proceedings, for example, the decision by judges as persons at every stage of the proceedings, the performance-based remuneration of lawyers, and - yes, even the new idol called data protection. None of this will happen today or tomorrow, and of course it will require constitutional amendments - but digitization is more than just remote access to files, even if much has already been gained with the latter.
