E-justice Implementation in Central Asian (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan) and East Asian Countries (Japan, Republic of Korea and Indonesia)

Development of e-justice (i.e., implementing IT tools in courts) is one of the core issues of digitalization of the judiciaries globally. This article aims to examine development of e-justice systems in six Asian countries in order to provide insights for successful e-justice deployment in Japan. In three Central Asian countries e-justice initiatives have been supported by foreign donors’ assistance (World Bank, USAID, UNDP, EU, IDLO, and UNODC). The judiciaries implement e-justice systems for improving access to justice, transparency, fair trial, and efficiency. However, in practice, they face challenges in achieving these goals. This study presents a theory of fragmentary divergence. It helps to elaborate and illustrate why e-justice initiatives in practice lead to partial deviations from initially expected goals, which raise several key points of concerns. The case studies of e-justice implementation models in three Central Asian countries (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan) and three East Asian countries (Japan, Republic of Korea and Indonesia) are examined. The article is based on analysis of national legislation and publicly available information on e-justice, analysis of the role of foreign donors’ assistance, and supplemented by an interview with a Japanese expert. The study provides recommendations for improving the implementation of e-justice in Japan.