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Justiniano Montero assures that the proposed Law on the Use of Digital Media in the Judiciary will generate invaluable benefits in the institutional order.

About the Judiciary

The judge of the First Chamber held during the Strategic Dialogue on the Transformation of Justice that the National School of the Judiciary has been training lawyers through the program "Yo me apunto a la virtualidad", due to the importance of the digitality and of these media in the Judiciary.

The judge of the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), Justice Justiniano Montero Montero, assured that the proposed Law for the Use of Digital Media in the Judicial Branch is an instrument of development that constitutes an axis of institutional strength, which corresponds to what is the launching of a new country within the framework of the global reality in which we find ourselves, assuming as its own the principles that Law 1-12, on the National Development Strategy, rightly states, which outlines the general guidelines for a programmatic agenda, which focuses on the center of the horizon of aspirations of a country that claims efficiency and good performance as a national priority.

In the same line of thought, it is an instrument that connects with the mission and vision developed in Law 167-21, which seeks to direct a regulatory environment that corresponds to the transformation of public services, which in its historical trajectory has consummated the disastrous swing of administrative deficiency. It is rather the construction of a new order, whose current was born in our America since 2002, and in Europe since 1984, is what has been called in the doctrine that postulates for the real and tangible reform of the public administration, as described in a formidable way by Xosé Carlos Arias, in the work called La Nueva Institucionalidad (The New Institutionality).

To move from a conventional analog judicial power towards digitality, which is nothing more than to strengthen the historical challenges of a new era that empowers technology as a programmatic imperative axis of development. We cannot act with pettiness that only sustains the despicable support of inexplicable backwardness, which also contravenes the forces of the progressive evolution of dialectics as a notion of change and pillar of development and progress, we can from the critical vision bet that the institutionality prevails, which is what we defend as an inalienable conviction of our identity as a citizen and as a judge of long journey, identified with all the processes of reform in favor of the Judiciary.

Digitizing the Judiciary in the three essential axes contained in the draft bill that refer to the electronic signature, the formulation of the digital file and virtual hearings, symbolize the expectations of an unavoidable need, which in several countries of the region is an established reality, i.e. Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama, among others, whose scope of application covers all matters, which began the path of change from 2000, Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama, among others, whose scope of application covers all matters, which began the path of change from the year 2000, which means that it was not the pandemic effect that led to the adoption of this new way of conceiving positively as an institutional action the judicial service in the new times.

The High Court judge said that, if this project is evaluated in terms of its global and macro-social impact, it will generate invaluable benefits in what must be a new institutional order.

"In terms of cost, this means that the country does not have to assume all the difficulties involved in locating parking lots, visits to the courthouses would be significantly reduced, and in terms of environmental protection, the reduction of vehicle movement represents care and respect for the environment".

In another order, Magistrate Montero added that this project seeks to create mechanisms in the legislative institutional order in accordance with the mandate provided by the Constitutional Court, in the sense that seen from the Constitution required the enactment of a law, therefore, it is pertinent to clarify that the position outlined by the High Court in no way develops the precedent that digitality in its various aspects implies a violation of the Constitution, a sensible and thoughtful reading of the ruling in question shows in its normative content that the actions of the Council in adopting the resolutions were not in accordance with the Magna Carta, so that, as a matter of interpretative order, the Court was kind enough to establish that such regulation required a law.

"In the project various regulations are conceived in favor of the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice, in order to make viable the use and integration of digital media in the provision of judicial service in its integral context. Logically, taking into account the diverse situations of our society, the implementation of virtuality requires a gradual implementation and program with sense, sanity and sense of balance, taking into account the diverse variables that affect, as well as the sensitivities of some matters. In the magistrate's opinion, the project corresponds to the principles and procedural guarantees that safeguard the fundamental rights derived from the notion of effective judicial protection as values of the constitutional order. Immediacy, publicity and orality are conceived in the project as a high priority parameter.

Likewise, the bill is a living expression of what is postulated in Law 137-11, on differentiated judicial protection. Finally, the bill clearly establishes that optionality is the rule in matters of virtual hearings, and that the exception to such rule will only be possible in the event of a national or local state of emergency, placing its regulation in charge of the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice as the Constitutional organ of supremacy of the Judicial Power. In the same sense, the bill establishes that, in the case of sexual crimes, in order to safeguard the victim, witness of the harmful and devastating effect that in the psychological order represents the re-victimization, the hearing in this case must be virtual, when so ordered by the court that so orders, either ex officio or at the request of the interested party, according to a motivated resolution. The legislative proposal in question was drafted by the Legislative Commission of the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice.

The magistrate recalled that Covid-19 disrupted the life of the world and that, therefore, it was not unusual for all societies to seek an option as a response to what became a terrible and merciless threat, but that even though it has left an everlasting aftermath of pain and suffering, it has also left us with the ability to make the metamorphosis, in a positive sense, as a context of modernity, which bets on predictability and certainty, within the framework of a journey of no return, of the legacy of the law, has also left us the ability to make the metamorphosis, in a good positive sense, as a context of modernity, which bets on predictability and certainty, within the framework of a journey of no return, of the legacy represented by the new order of digitalization in the various aspects that we have exposed.

It is worth noting that in terms of quality and efficiency indicators, the formulation of online procedures represents a new service model, as a parameter of internal dimension that enhances efficiency, it is worth mentioning that for the signing of files electronically in record time thousands of documents can be signed, which under the conventional modality a collegiate body, such as the Supreme Court chambers, exceeds in an estimated one month, however, digitally we could be talking about a couple of hours, a comparative exercise of both variables would provide us in an elementary objective order the effects of the paradigm shift.

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