Digital justice

In a period of growing suspicion about the power of digital technology and ‘tech companies’, this short comment aspires to argue that the conditions for the functioning of the constitutional state contain an inherent obligation for the state not only to be sufficiently sensitive to the changes brought about by digitisation, but also to make use of digitisation. A key condition for the functioning of the constitutional state is e.g. that the judiciary is capable of fully implementing its task of affording legal protection. Reinterpreting this condition in the modern age implies that courts should remain explicitly vigilant when it comes to digitisation. Hence, affording protection is not only a question of what makes formal regulation in a digital world different from regulation in the well-known offline world. If the constitutional state is to be ‘capable’ of implementing its task of affording legal protection, it must also be sufficiently sensitive to the changes brought about by digitisation, as well as deploy the potential that digitisation offers.