Tecnologie e organizzazione giudiziaria in Italia e in Europa

This work is based on several years of research work conducted by the Italian National Research Council's Institute of Judicial Systems Research into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the administration of justice in Italy and in other countries. More precisely, this article sets out to answer the following research questions: 1) What is the situation of ICTs in the administration of justice in Italy? 2) What is the situation of ICTs in other judicial systems, with reference in particular to systems in Europe? 3) Which factors contribute to explaining the different levels of development achieved by the various countries? 4) How do the projects developed for the administrations of justice fit into the broader picture of e-Government and what trends and critical points are emerging? In order to answer these questions, the essay starts with a necessarily very short description of the situation of ICTs in the administration of justice in Italy, before looking into the main trends at European level and then analysing the complexity factors that may provide an interpretation of the different levels reached by various European countries. Lastly, the conclusions apply an e-Government project evaluation grid to the area of justice and throw light on some of the more important points that are currently critical for the development of ICTs in Europe and in our judicial system