DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN CONSTITUTIONAL COURTS: OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS

Abstract

This article analyzes the theoretical foundations of the digitalization process in constitutional court proceedings, international experience, and its role in national legal practice. The author reveals the possibilities for the efficiency and transparency of judicial activity, as well as the effective implementation of citizens’ constitutional right to appeal through digital technologies, in particular, “e-Court,” “smart court” systems, and chatbot services. The study assesses the role of digital transformation in ensuring transparency, efficiency, and accessibility in court proceedings. Based on the views of foreign scientists, the positive and negative aspects of digitalization are analyzed—ease of access to justice, but at the same time such risks as digital difference and procedural uncertainty. At the same time, the article comprehensively covers such risks and limitations as the digital divide, threats to procedural equality, weakening of the human factor, technological insecurity, and violation of privacy. Based on the experience of various countries, including Indonesia, South Korea, France, and the Netherlands, it has been shown that digital transformation can strengthen human rights or, conversely, limit them. According to the author’s main conclusion, digitalization in constitutional courts should be organized at the center of the individual and carried out on the basis of a socially inclusive approach that corresponds to the principles of a democratic legal state.