Implementing E-Justice on a National Scale: Coping with Balkanization and Socio-Economical Divergence

The world of justice is undergoing drastic changes that commenced about a decade ago. Trends in an effort for enterprise like management, along with the advent of information and communication technologies, have culminated in a strong imperative for technological and organizational reforms. However, justice is not simply another sector for e-government implementations. Justice is an autonomous function of democratic regimes that not only interprets laws but also poses restrictions and preconditions on how electronic systems are implemented with concern for the protection of constitutional and civil rights. Multiple types of relationships have been developed between politicians, administrators, technological infrastructure providers, and businesses, converting the roadmap for e-justice implementation from a mere quantified investment on content and organization to a complex strategy involving broader social and economical modeling techniques. Using case studies in three Balkan countries this research illustrates the problems in applying e-justice on a national scale.