Data, at the centre of the symposium on justice and law organised by the University of Salamanca and the Ministry of Justice

The University of Salamanca (USAL) hosted the symposium "Justice and Law in Data: The role of Data as a change enabler and driver for the transformation of Justice and Law". The meeting was organised by the University itself, in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, with the aim of reflecting on data as a public good.

The first day had an institutional and academic character, with keynote lectures by experts in law and competitiveness in the country.

Opening of the event

The symposium was inaugurated by Fernando Carbajo Cascón, Dean of the Faculty of Law, María Encarnación Pérez Álvarez, Deputy Delegate of the Government in Salamanca, Federico Bueno de Mata, Academic Director of the symposium and Fabiola Solino, Head of the Support Unit of the Directorate General of Digital Transformation of the Ministry of Justice. Fabiola Solino began by highlighting how "data is a fundamental resource in all current societies and plays an essential role in the way in which public services are administered, to the point of being at the centre of any public agenda with a transformative vocation". She also highlighted how the conference would show the willingness of administrations, academia and private sector to "promote data and the application of new techniques such as robotisation and artificial intelligence in order to offer citizens a closer, more transparent, innovative and efficient public service". All of this with an inclusive and sustainable approach.

Federico Bueno de Mata highlighted three key elements of the conference: modernity, humanism - since behind the data there are people - and knowledge transfer between the different agents of public administrations, academia and companies. María Encarnación Pérez Álvarez highlighted the importance of addressing digital advances to guarantee the sustainability of the system, paying special attention to security and the guarantee of fundamental rights. Finally, Fernando Carbajo Cascón focused on the importance of data for the functioning of society and the economy: "a responsible and transparent policy of generation, transfer and access to data is fundamental for the creation, dissemination and access to knowledge, for the development of dynamic innovation for the benefit of society and the better provision of public services". In his speech, he highlighted the importance of data for the development of public policies, decision-making by public and private agents, and as a driver of solutions -many linked to artificial intelligence- that help legal operators to carry out their work in a more transparent, simple and agile way.

After the inauguration, there were several keynote speeches, focusing on the situation of justice and data in Spain, Big Data, artificial intelligence and the digitisation of justice, among other issues.

Manuel Olmedo Palacios, Secretary General for Innovation and Quality of the Public Justice Service, addressed data within the context of co-governance in the field of Justice, a system that represents a positive experience for the Ministry, insofar as it facilitates a dialogue-based ecosystem for the provision of the public service of Justice in Spain, where decisions can be taken with greater accuracy and in which one can learn from the experiences of others. He explained that the plurality of decision-making actors within the justice ecosystem is a strength for coordinated decision-making, and it is in this context that data must be managed. The need for a correct management of data is raised, without ceasing to pursue the placement and situation of the person, the citizen, at the centre of all justice policies as the only way to reduce the gaps and protect their fundamental rights in the best way possible.

The Data Manifesto, a document drawn up within the State Technical Committee for e-Justice Administration, was also discussed, where the need to reinforce the importance of data in the process of digital transformation of justice is raised. Tontxu Rodríguez Esquerdo, Secretary of State for Justice, officially presented the Data Manifesto, explaining the relevance of this document aimed at identifying the principles on which to build a public data space for the Justice sector: to define, generate, maintain, preserve, guarantee and respect the principles that must govern the processing of public data related to the activity of Justice. He also informed that access to the data by citizens and other public and private political actors is now a right, which implies the possibility of demanding from the body responsible for the elaboration and dissemination of the data as part of its activities.

Open data in the justice sector

In the afternoon, the session focused on "Open Data, AI and the Administration of Justice", first from the perspective of Constitutional Law and Administrative Law, and then from the perspective of Procedural Law.

Various speakers talked about the guarantees of rights in the framework of open data and the protection of personal data. The governance of artificial intelligence in the public legal sphere was also addressed, highlighting the importance of looking at the risks associated with three elements: the input data, what the system does with it and the output decision. To provide greater safeguards, there is a need to develop risk reviews and promote transparency. The need to have specific rules for the use of AI in the sector, to always work with human supervision and to respect fundamental rights, including procedural rights such as effective judicial protection or the presumption of innocence, was also highlighted.

Another issue highlighted was the need for data management professionals who are aware of the importance of data. These professionals must be aware of the relevance that each piece of data may have not only individually, but also when combined with other data. Furthermore, they must take into account the nature of each piece of data, especially in those areas, such as the university, where information of a different nature coexists, such as academic, health, economic data, etc.

Examples of use cases

Examples of open data reuse in the legal sector were then presented in several parallel rooms. Examples are:

• The National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences spoke about digital transformation in forensic medicine and the work they carry out in the area of data-driven justice and prevention. To this end, they use tools that allow combined analysis from multiple data sources, as well as the visualisation and comprehensive exploration of data in an interactive and simple way, facilitating the creation of collaborative content in which different working groups participate. An example of its data processing work is the report on "Technological findings in traffic accident fatalities", which brings together data from different laboratories, the results of which can also be viewed on the "Justice in data" portal.

• Representatives of the Autonomous University of Madrid commented on how since 2015 they have been analysing judgments (more than 2,000 per year) from various bodies: the contentious-administrative courts, the High Courts of Justice, the National High Court and the Supreme Court. Through the analysis of this data, they try to answer questions such as at what territorial level of the administration litigiousness is concentrated, what factors influence the estimation of appeals or whether there are territorial differences in management. Thanks to these data, the aim is to improve three facets: regulatory quality, administrative activity and the jurisdictional function.

• From the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) they spoke about the application of artificial intelligence and georeferencing, using the cadastre and the land registry, to carry out municipal genealogies, to generate a correspondence of names and surnames and to be able to more easily resolve disputes related to these matters.

• The representative of the Universitat de Barcelona-Universitat de Girona talk about AI and predictive justice, focusing on the incorporation of the future behaviour of the accused as a parameter to be considered in decision-making related to the penal system through risk assessment. One example is the RisCanvi protocol, used by the Catalan Department of Justice to assess the risk of recidivism based on a series of parameters (economic capacity, beliefs, family support, etc.). In the US, in Pennsylvania, they go a step further and apply algorithms to determine the sentences to be served. The risk lies in preventing this type of solution from being discriminatory and in the importance of being transparent.

• The massive analysis of data and Artificial Intelligence to improve the control and audit of public procurement was another of the topics discussed, in this case by the representative of the University of Oviedo and NTT Data. Through the analysis of data from the Public Sector Procurement Platform and the Commercial Register, together with data from the European platform TED Tender, a search engine/recommender of companies for tenders has been created, as well as a software application to detect irregular tenders, among others.

Other talks were focused on the automation of robotic processes (RPA) to improve the efficiency of justice in tasks such as the return of economic income, the need to improve interoperability and the importance of transparency and good information management to promote competitive bidding in electronic judicial auctions.

Sharing experiences

The second day focused on sharing experiences from the public and private sector in the legal field related to data, including international experiences.

There were also parallel rooms where the ethical use of AI, the importance of universal interoperability in Justice, the use of biometric systems in Justice or the application of Machine learning for judicial notifications were discussed.

All the presentations, both those held in the auditorium and in the parallel rooms, are available through the Youtube channel of the University of Salamanca.

In short, during the two days, the willingness of all members of the legal sector, including public administrations, private organisations and academic centres, to promote the transformation of the sector, implementing innovations to improve effectiveness and efficiency, was evident. A task for which it is necessary to have quality open data that shows the reality of the sector, respecting all legal guarantees.