Electronification of Civil Litigation and Civil Justice – The Future of the Traditional Civil Procedure Facing the Electronification

Abstract

This article deals with the so-called “Electronic Justice” as one important aspect of procedural law and of procedural law comparison worldwide. Basically one can say that the topic of electronic civil justice and electronic civil litigation is a very new one especially under scientific regard. This contribution focuses the scientific discussion on the “Electronic Justice” nowadays and in future development – from a German point of view. A good reason for thinking about this topic in Germany are the recent legislative actions in German civil justice system – “Formvorschriftenanpassungsgesetz” (2001), “Zustellungsreformgesetz” (2002), “ZPO-Reformgesetz” (2002) and last, but not least the “Justice Communication Act” (2005). The development of e-civil litigation and e-justice in Germany is an example for specific actual – and probably future – problems and questions of e-justice. These problems can be described easily with the following catch words: Pragmatism versus conception of e-justice, formalism versus content of e-procedural law, detailed regulations of e-procedural law versus lack of basic regulations of e-justice, fixation on IT-instruments versus lack of theoretical discussion. Finally we can summarize that the well-known difference between law in books and law in practice also exists in the new areas of civil litigation – not only, but also in Germany.

The author teaches as Privatdozent at the Institute for Comparative Law at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt/M. See for further details esp. (on line): http://www.jura.uni-frankfurt.de/l_Personal/priv_doz/fischer/index.html (04.04.2011).