민사소송절차의 전자소송화에 대한 고찰

The wide spread of the Internet has enabled national agencies to deal with many affairs between man and computer instead of between men. Today most administrative works related to renovation can be done uniformly regardless of places thanks to electronic documents and the computation of administrative affairs. Responding to that trend of the times, the Ministry of Justice is working on turning all kinds of suit proceedings into electronic ones by utilizing the advanced information and communication technologies in order to promote the convenience and efficiency of legal procedures. The initiative has two sectors; one is electronic suits and the other is electronic courts. Electronic suits include such core elements as electronic urge, computation of delivery notices, electronic exchange of suit documents, DB of rulings, electronic notarial deed, and issue of certifications. And electronic courts pursue digitalization in electronic facilities and equipments. The Ministry of Justice has been leading discussions about using electronic documents in civil proceedings. When electronic suits are introduced in all kinds of suit proceedings, there will be a major reform in suit proceedings. Unlike administrative procedures, suit proceedings have the possibility of suit documents becoming the core of dispute when the concerned documents are electronic, which means there can be all kinds of controversy in the early stage and calls for a need for intensive discussions. In preparation of turning civil proceedings into electronic ones, this study set out to examine a series of related issues including the history and current state of electronic suits, legitimacy of turning civil proceedings into electronic ones, the current state of documents used in civil proceedings, possibility of each document becoming electronic one, and activation plans to turn suit proceedings into electronic documents.