전자소송의 현황과 미래

The Current Issues and Future Prospects of Electronic Civil Procedures

Act on the Use of Electronic Documents in Civil Litigations was enforced on March 24, 2010. It opened the door to the era of electronic civil procedures. The introduction of electronic civil procedures has enhanced efficiency and transparency of civil litigations through the reduction of cost and time, and has contributed to realizing people’s rights. The parties and counsels in civil litigation can choose whether they use electronic civil procedures or not. Civil Procedure Act amended in 2016 introduced ‘videoconferenced witness testimony’, which uses a video or other transmission system. The testimony of a witness who testifies in remote areas through a video or other transmission system is deemed to be the testimony in court conforming to the requirements and procedures prescribed in other provisions concerning investigation of evidence. Upon these improvements, it is necessary to prepare for the challenges of future and make plans of next reform. In order to promote the choice of electronic civil procedures, additional improvements need to be made. Preliminary conference for narrowing the issues and setting a timetable may be conducted in the form of videoconference. The choice of electronic civil procedures should be made mandatory for lawyers. It is desirable to integrate the provisions of Act on the Use of Electronic Documents in Civil Litigations into Civil Procedures Act. In the long term, it is necessary to review and prepare for the use of artificial intelligence in electronic civil procedures. We should begin with the efforts to overcome vague fear and resistance to the involvement of artificial intelligence in civil litigations. The format of electronic documents submitted to the court should be limited to the form of text files in order to increase the availability of data. When we develop algorithm for artificial intelligence, it is indispensable to come up with measures to eliminate biased data.