A Primer on the Digitisation of Administrative Tribunals

Abstract

Tribunals are a major feature of the administrative justice landscape in the UK. Recently, the government proposed and began to implement a revolutionary digitisation agenda across the justice system. The digitisation of administrative tribunals is a key part of that agenda. The proposed changes promise a paradigm shift in the way that public law litigation is carried out and, more broadly, how fairness in the administrative state is policed. Not much is, however, known as to the detail of what is to come, with the current policy documents offering only a broad vision. At this point of ‘known unknowns’, this short and accessible primer seeks to set out a framework in which the emergence of digital tribunals can be understood and assessed. It outlines four important contexts: reforms to administrative justice and changes to tribunals; advances in e-government; developments in online dispute resolution; and the development of the Transforming Our Justice System proposals.