April 14, 2004

Jordan Times

Complementary know-how needed
 

Editorial

It is great news that the Ministry of Justice is at last introducing information technology to its employees in general and to those in the court system in particular.
It was just announced that the ministry will start training officials on how to use computers to service the entire justice system, especially the courts of law. It is hard to believe that the country has been conducting business till now without computers. It is unimaginable that a country as advanced as Jordan has not introduced technology to its justice system at a time when its economy has advanced so much in recent times.

Court transcripts are still recorded by handwriting, something which is neither efficient nor appropriate. Moving in the direction of modernising the court system, even if rather late, is a step that had to be taken. Training officials and clerks serving the courts will take time but eventually will get the knack of it. This should speed up litigation, since, as the saying goes, justice delayed is justice denied.

We have scores of people detained in prisons waiting for their trials to as much as start, not to mention to be concluded.

To be sure, what we need now is not only technology but a new state of mind to accelerate the rendering of justice. This will take more than computers as it is harder to change the state of mind of all the people who service the administration of justice than to improve their technical know-how. This is where the ministry must focus its attention as well in the coming few months so that technology gets complemented by mental development.