UCL Laws hosts expert panel discussion on ‘The Future of Courts’

On 14 May 2024, members of the judiciary, legal and technology practitioners, policy officials and academics were invited to Bentham House for an expert panel and audience discussion on ‘The Future of Courts’. The event, jointly sponsored by The Nuffield Foundation and Legal Education Foundation, was organised by UCL Laws’ Professor Dame Hazel Genn (Professor of Socio-Legal Studies), Dr John Sorabji (Associate Professor) and Dr Natalie Byrom (Honorary Senior Research Fellow).

The event aimed to enhance understanding of the pressures on courts, their role in law production, the needs of claimants and defendants, the impact of online mechanisms and the power of platform providers and data scrapers, access to data about these processes and outcome, and the role for collective redress in shaping access to courts and to public dispute resolution processes. It particularly focused on the development of the digital justice system.

Professor Eloise Scotford (Dean of UCL Laws) opened the event with a welcome address, followed by an expert panel chaired by The Rt Hon Sir Ernest Ryder (Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation) with Dr Sorabji acting as discussant. The distinguished panel of speakers discussed the challenges that technology poses for courts in England and Wales and in the USA, which are currently experiencing the most significant shift in their approach to the delivery of justice in over a century. The Rt Hon Lord Hodge (Deputy President of the UK Supreme Court) and The Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Vos MR provided an English perspective on these issues; Eliot Fineberg (Cofounder and Director of FF Studio, Design and Technology Studio) and Dr Jeni Tennison OBE (Founder and Executive Director, Connected by Data) discussed the technology-related aspects; and Professor Judith Resnik (Yale Law School and Honorary Professor at UCL Laws) drew on her experience of technology-based reform in the USA to provide insights.

Dr Sorabji summarised the key points from the presentations before the Chair invited the audience to share their perspectives and questions around the issues raised by the panel. The evening closed with a reception, which offered further opportunities to discuss the future development of the justice system.

The event formed part of a series and follows an initial conference on the 'Future of Justice' held at Bentham House in May 2018. A further conference is to be held exploring the issues raised in more detail towards the end of 2024.

Find out more

• The Nuffield Foundation
• The Legal Education Foundation
• Speech by the Master of the Rolls: The Future of Courts