Abstract
This paper tries to answer the question whether the use of IT in enforcement proceedings may make them more effective, so that more creditors may obtain more money out of them, in less time, with a proportionate cost for the civil justice system. The author takes into consideration several aspects of enforcement procedures (locating the debtor’s assets, filing cases, judicial auctions, the need for transparency, the duration of cases…). The issue of safeguarding the debtor’s privacy is also considered in this context. The paper especially deals with projects and developments in this area of the law in the European framework. The author’s conclusions are that IT may indeed support enforcement proceedings as concerns access to justice, reduction of delays, fight corruption, grant transparency and efficiency of the proceedings. However, the paper also advocates the creation and implementation of new procedural models specifically designed for an IT implementation.
Finding materials for this paper has not been easy. Warm thanks are therefore due to all the colleagues and friends who were so kind as to reply to my queries, send feedback, give advice, present papers and ideas Credit and thanks are due, in alphabetical order, to N. Andrews (United Kingdom), for materials and encouragement; L. Cadiet (France) for sending me his paper “Le procès civil à l’epreuve des nouvelles technologies”; P. H. Dos Santos Lucon and G. Recena Costa (Brazil), for sending me their most complete report on the situation in Brazil, from which I widely “stole” in the preparation of this paper; A. Gidi (Brazil-Usa), for reviewing the original draft of this paper and friendly questioning my questions; P. Gilles (Germany) for sending me materials and giving moral support; G. C. Hazard (Usa), for hints on the American situation; A. W. Jongbloed (the Netherlands), for kindly providing me with a copy of the article he wrote with D. Struiksma, “Bailiffs on the e-Highway”; S. Mironova (Russia), for insights on the situation in the Russian Federation and reference to websites and online discussion groups; E. Oteiza (Argentina), for sending me a copy of the paper “Diagnostico sobre el proceso argentino de ejecucion de sentencias, en el marco de una nueva Mirada sobre el anteproyecto de codigo procesal civil modelo para iberocamérica”, which he wrote with J. M. Salgado; A. Pellegrini Grinover (Brazil) for invaluable support; D. Reiling (the Netherlands) for precious hints and suggestions; J.J. Stettin (Usa), for feedback and remarks; M. Stuerner (Germany) for an insight on the most recent German reforms; S. Subrin (Usa) for reading my draft paper and sending enlightening feedback: R. van den Hoogen, for introducing me to Dr. Reiling’s dissertation; V. Vebraite (Lithuania) for hints on the Estonian situation; F. Verbic (Argentina), for feedback and support. Of course, all the mistakes are mine. Thanks to Camilla Barker for her final linguistic revision.
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Notes
- 1.
L. Cadiet. Le procès civil à l’épreuve des nouvelles technologies.
- 2.
N. Andrews, Enforcement of civil judgments in England.
- 3.
For further discussion on IT functionalities, see D. Reiling, Technology for Justice. How Information Technology can Support Judicial Reform (Amsterdam: Leiden University Press, 2009), 45.
- 4.
Reiling, op. cit., 45.
- 5.
Reiling, op. cit., 55 and 59.
- 6.
Reiling, op. cit., 45 and 57.
- 7.
Reiling, op. cit., 126 ff.
- 8.
Reiling, op. cit.
- 9.
More details in Reiling, op. cit., 58.
- 10.
In Off. jour. Eur. Un., March, 31st 2009, C 75\1.
- 11.
European Union Council E-Justice action plan 2009–2013, § 31.
- 12.
Thank you Michael Stuerner.
- 13.
RIK is a state agency working under the Ministry of Justice. It develops and administers about 50 registers and information services for law and criminal jurisdiction such as court information system, e-File, e-Law etc. There is also e-Business Register, e-Land Register and e-Notary. E-Business Register makes it possible to register a new company over the Internet and also make detailed inquiries about other companies, look at annual reports and much more. E-Land Register is a register of ownership which has made electronic conveyance much easier and all the data is available over the internet. E-Notary is the environment that helps notaries in their work and organizes electronic communication between notary and state. Thank you Vigita Vebraite.
- 14.
See e.g. Sec. 15B (“Offence of unauthorized use or disclosure”) of the English Act of 2007:
(1) This section applies if the Commissioners make a disclosure of information (“debtor information”) under section 15A(5).
(2) A person to whom the debtor information is disclosed commits an offence if—
(a) he uses or discloses the debtor information, and
(b) the use or disclosure is not authorised by subsection (3), (5), (6) or (7).
(3) The use or disclosure of the debtor information is authorised if it is—
(a) for a purpose connected with the enforcement of the lapsed order (including the direction of the order to the debtor’s current employer), and
(b) with the consent of the Commissioners.
- 15.
D. Struiksma and A. W. Jongbloed, “Bailiffs on the e-Highway,” in Information & Communications Technology Law 15, no. 2 (2006): 201–6.
- 16.
See Salemme, “L’impiego dell’informatica nelle esecuzioni immobiliari,” in Rivista trimestrale di diritto e procedura civile (2010): 1333.
- 17.
- 18.
Thank you M. Stuerner. See http://www.justiz.de/elektronischer_rechtsverkehr/index.php for details.
- 19.
See e.g.:
Rule 5005 (Filing and Transmittal of Papers):
(a) Filing. (…)
(2) Filing by electronic means.
A court may by local rule permit or require documents to be filed, signed, or verified by electronic means that are consistent with technical standards, if any, that the Judicial Conference of the United States establishes. A local rule may require filing by electronic means only if reasonable exceptions are allowed. A document filed by electronic means in compliance with a local rule constitutes a written paper for the purpose of applying these rules, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure made applicable by these rules, and § 107 of the Code.
Rule 8008 (Filing and Service):
(a) Filing.
Papers required or permitted to be filed with the clerk of the district court or the clerk of the bankruptcy appellate panel may be filed by mail addressed to the clerk, but filing is not timely unless the papers are received by the clerk within the time fixed for filing, except that briefs are deemed filed on the day of mailing. An original and one copy of all papers shall be filed when an appeal is to the district court; an original and three copies shall be filed when an appeal is to a bankruptcy appellate panel. The district court or bankruptcy appellate panel may require that additional copies be furnished. Rule 5005(a)(2) applies to papers filed with the clerk of the district court or the clerk of the bankruptcy appellate panel if filing by electronic means is authorized by local rule promulgated pursuant to Rule 8018.
Rule 9036 (Notice by electronic transmission):
Whenever the clerk or some other person as directed by the court is required to send notice by mail and the entity entitled to receive the notice requests in writing that, instead of notice by mail, all or part of the information required to be contained in the notice be sent by a specified type of electronic transmission, the court may direct the clerk or other person to send the information by such electronic transmission. Notice by electronic means is complete on transmission.
Rule 9037 (Privacy Protection For Filings Made with the Court):
(a) Redacted filings.
Unless the court orders otherwise, in an electronic or paper filing made with the court that contains an individual’s social-security number, taxpayer-identification number, or birth date, the name of an individual, other than the debtor, known to be and identified as a minor, or a financial-account number, a party or nonparty making the filing may include only:
-
1.
the last four digits of the social-security number and taxpayer-identification number;
-
2.
the year of the individual’s birth;
-
3.
the minor’s initials; and
-
4.
the last four digits of the financial-account number.
-
1.
- 20.
European Union Council E-Justice action plan 2009–2013, § 37.
- 21.
Cfr. (4) Reiling, op. cit., 108.
- 22.
P. Gilles, Oral, Written and Electronic Civil Court Procedures and Questions About Their Efficiency (Paper Presented at Tifilis, 2010).
- 23.
See also D. Reiling, op. cit., p. 155; L. Cadiet, op. cit.
- 24.
See also L. Cadiet, op. cit.
- 25.
L. Cadiet, op. cit.
- 26.
L. Cadiet, op. cit.
- 27.
Thank you y Francisco Verbic.
- 28.
Thank you Vigita Vebraite.
- 29.
D. Struiksma, A. W. Jongbloed, op. cit.
- 30.
E. Oteiza, Salgado, Diagnostico sobre el proceso argentino de ejecucion de sentencias, en el marco de una nueva Mirada sobre el anteproyecto de codigo procesal civil modelo para iberocamérica.
- 31.
See the press release of the Federal Ministry of Justice at: http://www.bmj.de/enid/0,3d9d15706d635f6964092d0935383838093a0979656172092d0932303039093a096d6f6e7468092d093035093a095f7472636964092d0935383838/Pressestelle/Pressemitteilungen_58.html
- 32.
http://www.justiz-auktion.de/: thank you M. Stuerner. See also P. Gilles, Public and Private Justice: Dispute Resolution in Modern Societies (Paper Presented at Dubrovnik, 2009).
- 33.
For further reference, see: https://e-justice.europa.eu/contentPresentation.do?%26lang=en%26idTaxonomy=71%26idCountry=EU%26vmac=C8KGtdqVdhjWb41xu5WQ4Xo-7HfUd9-3RgJbUr54zSaYIiDKIym0E4XVumfQDc7FgAYGZ23JLDrB1jmAtlIhAAAAGwUAAAFF and https://e-justice.europa.eu/contentPresentation.do?%26lang=en%26idTaxonomy=151%26idCountry=EU%26vmac=HPv4XPhSBKzvDfkMlabYuGjpcqJI6ld1ctKZ9GV9kvDNY0Ds5iVDX4XnG582enleKbVshNGSMVP8Ca8ftNxQ6AAADfQAAAMs
- 34.
See D. Reiling, op. cit., 210, stating: “Introducing and using information technology is often believed to reduce corruption in courts and judiciaries because it is expected to introduce more impersonal ways of working”.
- 35.
D. Reiling, op. cit., 258.
- 36.
See also L. Cadiet, op. cit., remarking: “Il a fallu sept ans à la Cour de Cassation pour parvenir au point où elle en est aujourd’hui”.
- 37.
See D. Reiling, op. cit., 61 ss.
- 38.
Undoubtedly, IT “is attractive because it implies the promise of things becoming better and easier”: D. Reiling, op. cit., 16. The a., however, also remarks, p. 273: “Claims that IT will improve things are taken as a certainty and not as mere claims”.
- 39.
P. Gilles, Oral, written and electronic civil court procedures, cit.
- 40.
D. Reiling, op. cit., 271.
- 41.
P. Gilles, Oral, written and electronic civil court procedures, cit.
- 42.
P. Gilles, Oral, written and electronic civil court procedures, cit. See also L. Cadiet, op. cit.
- 43.
Cfr. L. Cadiet, op. cit.
- 44.
Cfr. D. Reiling, op. cit., 77.
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Lupoi, M.A. (2012). Enforcement of a Claim with the Support of the New Information Technology. Protection of the Creditor and the Debtor. In: Kengyel, M., Nemessányi, Z. (eds) Electronic Technology and Civil Procedure. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4072-3_9
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