Assuring a transparent legal action, enhancing citizens’ access to justice and reducing corruption are some of the main and priority objectives of Romania in the process of computerization of the legal systemprocess of computerization of the legal system, computer systems, modern computer technologies, judiciary activity

Ileana STEFAN

English

Research Papers in Economics

163 CURENTUL JURIDIC
THE COMPUTERIZATION OF THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM
Ileana ŞTEFAN*
ABSTRACT: Assuring a transparent legal action, enhancing citizens’ access to
justice and reducing corruption are some of the main and priority objectives of
Romania in the process of computerization of the legal system
KEYWORDS: process of computerization of the legal system, computer systems,
modern computer technologies, judiciary activity.
JEL CLASSIFICATION : K OO, K23
I. Introduction
The reform of the legal system represents a priority within the institutional reform
of Romania, whose objectives were established by the Strategy adopted at the end of March
2005.
Assuring a transparent legal action, enhancing citizens’ access to justice and reducing
corruption are some of the main and priority objectives of Romania in the process of
computerization of the legal system.
Justice reform includes the necessary objectives for updating and computing the
judiciary system in the context of speeding up the process of European integration.
The use of modern computer technologies will accelerate the reform process by
assuring the standardization of the procedures on the level of the entire system, their
unification, as well as by including some indicators for measuring the efficiency of the
legal actions.
Judiciary system computerization has as its main objective:
A. Judicial procedures’ effectiveness:
- Increasing legal action’s quality and reducing the length of time necessary for trials;
- Speeding up court procedures;
- Assuring the simultaneous access of the justice-makers to the information of public
interest regarding justice actions;
- Standardizing procedures, forms, lists and schedules on the level of the entire legal
system;
- Gradual replacement of storing and administering data on printed format by the use
of e-forms for files and other specific documents;
*  Lecturer, PhD., “Petru Maior” University of Tg. Mureş, Faculty of Economics, Law and Administrative Sciences,
Romania164 Ileana STEFAN
- Fast access for  courts’ and  prosecution service’s  personnel to  legislation,
jurisprudence, and information regarding cases on trial;
- Fast communication between the legal system bodies by using protected electronic
means;
- Reorganizing judiciary activity and reducing the amount of administrative work of
the members of the judiciary;
- Increasing the level of computer skills of the members of the judiciary and of the
administrative staff for the purpose of using the new technologies in an efficient way;
-     Reducing the costs for witnesses or detainees’ hearing.
B. Increasing the level of transparency
- An open position to citizens, mass-media and non-governmental bodies by the on-
line publication of public information about the courts’ activity and other activities of
judiciary with a public character;
- Fostering the collaboration relations between the judiciary system institutions and
mass-media for assuring a correct and accurate informing of the public;
- Electronic services for citizens, lawyers and other specialists functioning in the
legal system (for instance serving summons online by the use of electronic signature);
- Availability to other computer systems for taking over and sending information
following a standard technology.
C. Personal and secret data protection
- Increasing the protection level of LAN and WAN networks;
- Implementing system access policy for each user according to specific competencies.
D. Corruption removal
- Random distribution of cases for panels of judges;
- Random distribution of criminal cases to Prosecution Services;
- Blocking unauthorized access to the files’ data.
E. Effective management of human, financial and material resources:
- Computerized management of internal documents;
- Optimization of allocation, liquidation, distribution and payment;
- Multi-annual planning of investments and budget on the basis of performance and
forecast analyses;
- Correspondence between public acquisitions with the real needs and the budget
schedule;
- Paying and motivating the personnel according with their activity and performances;
- The appropriate management of the patrimony.
The IT activity of the courts is coordinated by the IT Management Directorate of the
Ministry of Justice. The IT Department of the Prosecution Service Office attached to the
High Court of Cassation and Justice coordinates the IT activity of all Prosecution Services.
The High Court of Cassation and Justice, the Superior Council of Magistracy and the
National Anticorruption Directorate manage their IT activity by themselves and have their
own specialists in IT.
The courts have been allotted with about 300 positions for IT specialists and they are
distributed on the level of the appeal courts and district courts. The IT specialists from
district courts also perform within the local courts from the district courts’ jurisdictions.165 CURENTUL JURIDIC
As regards the Prosecution Service Offices, because their personnel is about 1/3
compared to that of courts, there is one position for an IT specialist within each Prosecution
Service Office attached to the Appeal Court and District Court, except PCA Bucharest and
PT Bucharest which have two positions.
According to the legal provisions, the number of IT specialists from courts and
Prosecution Service Offices is established  by the chairman of the court  or by  the
Prosecutor General to each Prosecution Service Office. The IT specialists’ recruitment
and promotion and the appointment of IT managers are made with the support of the IT
departments of the Ministry of Justice and the Public Ministry.
The IT office of the National Anticorruption Directorate is part of the Service of
classified information and data centralization regarding corruption and is made up of 6 IT
specialists (3 network administrators, 3 IT specialists who are responsible for data basis
management and programming, updating the site of the National Anticorruption Directorate
and  drafting reports  for criminal  files. The  territorial structures  of the  National
Anticorruption Directorate don’t have IT personnel. The activity for introducing/ validating
data for the files’ databases of NAD is made both in the central structure and the territorial
one by the court clerks.
The Ministry of Justice has in its subordination the National Administration of
Penitentiaries and the National Trade Register Office. Although they are not part of the
institutions, which have been assigned with competencies for the judiciary system’s
organization and functioning, actually, these institutions, by their specific activities and
the data they offer, are very important for a well-functioning of the system as a whole.
The National Administration of  Penitentiaries coordinates  the activity  of
penitentiaries. It has its own IT Direction, which organizes the activity of the IT specialists
from penitentiaries. Each penitentiary unit has an IT specialist and 1-3 computer operators.
The National Trade Register Office has a central IT structure made up of 30 specialists
(6 with high-school studies) as well as IT personnel within each territorial register office
that is organized on the level of each county (1-3 persons, according to the county’s size).
On the registration requests’ processing flow, the operation of data in the computers is
done according to the internal structure of each Trade Register Office, either by computer
operators, or by consultants.
II. Communication infrastructure
The communication infrastructure is heterogeneous, thus reflecting the proper level
of computing equipments and the financial possibilities. Starting with the 1st semester of
2004, a modern WAN communication system was implemented and this is made up of a
private network and functions on the national level. This connects entities from the Ministry
of Justice, the Public Ministry and the National Administration of Penitentiaries. Appeal
Courts, Prosecution Service Offices attached to them, district courts and some related
prosecution service offices, some first instance courts from counties’ municipalities and
prosecution service offices attached to them, all are connected to the WAN system. In
total, from the computer-based structure of the Ministry of Justice and of the courts, 103
locations are included in the network and from the Public Ministry, 25 locations. At the
same time 46 penitentiaries are connected. The network key-nodes are based at the Ministry166 Ileana STEFAN
of Justice for the courts, at the Prosecution Service Office attached to the High Court of
Cassation and Justice for the prosecution offices and at the National Administration of
Penitentiaries for penitentiaries.
Concomitantly, according to PHARE 2000 Program, locale LAN networks were
made in all locations with the proper equipments (45 penitentiaries, 16 courts, the Ministry
of Justice, the High Court of Cassation and Justice, 35 units of the Public Ministry). It
was possible to make these local networks mainly because all the necessary equipments
were provided by PHARE 2000 program, the equipments’ installing being financed from
own resources. Afterwards, local networks were made in other courts and prosecution
service offices, thus LAN networks are functional in 31 courts and 40 prosecution service
offices at present.
To this extended area, the Superior Council of Magistracy is also linked. Its
headquarter has its LAN network.
The High Court of Cassation and Justice is not connected to the WAN network of
the judiciary system and benefits from its own Internet connection.
The headquarter of the National Anticorruption Directorate has its own local network
of computers with Internet connection (lent telephonic line- 512 kbps), which allows data
basis query of the information administered by the National Trade Register Office. The
consolidation of the building for the offices of the National Anticorruption Directorate
was made in parallel with the development of the headquarters’ data network infrastructure
by the introduction of multiplexing (voice/data).
The central structure of the National Anticorruption Directorate holds at present
connections (lent telephonic line - 2 Mbps) with the Ministry of Administration and Interior,
the General Inspectorate of Romanian Police and the National Customs Authority. By this
network, the information from the databases managed by these institutions is available to
the authorized personnel as follows:
1. Data of the Ministry of Administration and Interior:
- Databases of driving license and registration license owners;
- The permanent directorate for persons record;
- The record of simple (tourist) passports’ holders;
2. Data of the National Customs Authority.
At present there aren’t lines for data communication between the central structure
of the National Anticorruption Directorate and the territorial services, thus the later can
neither benefit immediately from the central applications and information, nor send data
in an electronic format.
Starting with 1996, all communication in the system of the Trade Register Office is
based on the Internet network. The communication is used to daily send data from the
offices of the trade register attached to the district courts, to assign the tax registration
number for the traders, to provide with information from the databases of the central
computerized Trade Register, to deliver applications and their updating, electronic mail
and intranet.
Bucharest Unique Office is connected to the Trade Register Office attached to
Bucharest District Court by a radio connection of 8 Mbps (extra LAN) and the National
Trade Register Office together with the Trade Register Office attached to Bucharest District167 CURENTUL JURIDIC
Court have an Internet connection on optic fiber of 2.5 Mbps. Most territorial offices
have permanent connections on different physical support (optic fiber, rented telephone
line, TV cable, radio) with variable transfer rates (from 64 kbps to 196 kbps). The National
Trade Register Office and the territorial trade register offices have their own and different
Internet suppliers selected by public auction.
REFERENCES
http://www.just.ro
http://www.dreptonline.ro
http://www.ccr.r
M. Voicana - Sistemul Informatic Juridic Românesc - SIJUR, în “Probleme de informare
şi documentare”, Bucureşti, INID, nr. 4/1991
V.V. Patriciu, I. Vasiu, Ş.G. Patriciu - Internetul şi dreptul, Ed. ALL BECK, Bucureşti,
1999.

Voicana - Sistemul Informatic Juridic Românesc - SIJUR, în “Probleme de informare şi documentare”,

THE COMPUTERIZATION OF THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

http://www.upm.ro/facultati_departamente/ea/RePEc/curentul_juridic/rcj10/recjurid104_15F.pdf

THE COMPUTERIZATION OF THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

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