Law and Judicial Records in Israel: Invalid Management and Sharing of Public Knowledge

Abstract

Valid management and sharing of public knowledge is a critical aspect for any competent legal system and for thesafeguard of human rights. The duty of government to make the law known is commonly accepted legal norm, relative tolaws that are enacted by the legislature. Yet, how are laws, which are embedded in cyber platforms by programmers, to bemanaged and shared? The problem was presented by L. Lessig as a legal theory - “Code is Law”. Lessig primarily addressedcommercial platforms that were used for sharing knowledge, claiming that such platforms effectively established newrules, which were not enacted through any democratic process, were not explicitly stated, and might threatenconstitutional principles. E-government systems are a critical subset of such cyber platforms. Instant case study presentsdata from a series of Israeli court cases, pertaining to rules that are embedded in e-government systems, which determinetax liability, using the Tax Authority system, and valid signing and entry of criminal judgments of the courts themselves,using Administration of Courts Net-HaMishpat system. In both cases, government agencies refused to provide anyinformation regarding such rules, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. Following lengthy court battles, such ruleshave not yet been provided. The Israeli Supreme Court has avoided ruling on the issue whether software or IT system codeconstitutes “information” pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, deeming it ‘not ripe for review and decision’. Theobvious concern is that the rules, which are implemented in the respective e-government systems are out of compliancewith the publicly shared law and violate constitutional rights. In both cases, the issue is directly related to authenticationand validation of e-government systems and the knowledge they share. Such circumstances raise further concernsregarding knowledge management and sharing - lack of integrity and dissemination of invalid public knowledge bygovernments, undermining the public’s capacity to keep a watchful eye on the working of government agencies.Particularly regarding the courts, such circumstances can undermine the rule of law and human rights. IT experts shouldassume a more active role in human rights protection.