2 The Data Revolution in Justice 20 forefront of e-justice systems. Even so, electronic systems have also been implemented or are in the process of implementation in Latin America (Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, the Rep ́ublica Bolivariana de Venezuela, and some Mexican states, among others), Africa (Kenya, Rwanda, Lesotho, etc.) and Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, and many others). The increased availability of judicial data can be used to improve the functioning of judiciaries, define what works in justice reforms, and produce rigorous evidence on how the judiciary may affect development outcomes. That said, this paper does not establish standard performance indicators. Indicators have already been discussed on areas such as access to justice; expedition and timelines; equality, fairness and integrity; independence and accountability; and public trust and confidence (Reno et al., 1997). Moreover, we do not cover issues of transparency or accessibility of the data. The recommendations are targeted to everyone who may have access to judicial data. We also acknowledge that not all countries may have the institutional capacity or infrastructure to create data ecosystems, but even countries without electronic systems in place may benefit from understanding what may be possible were they to develop such data systems.

The extent to which each of these countries can utilize the approaches outlined in this paper will depend on the extent to which e-judiciaries are integrated, the sources of data available, as well as the quality and accuracy of this data. Common concerns surrounding representativeness and exhaustivity of the data will be present in contexts where not every case is added to the database, which may impose a burden on those with lower digital access.

The main sources of data are automated registrars, which generate a database that includes every case in a specific court, division (for example, civil or criminal cases), and country. These databases tend to include at least the following information: type of case and tribunal, the stage of the case, the dates of filing and resolution, reason for claim or accusation, resolution of the case, information about judges and parties involved, and the history of the case. Oftentimes, these cases can be merged to the judgment text. In an ideal scenario, this data will also be complemented by other sources of data to create a larger ecosystem. Case data can be linked to users or firms through tax or national IDs to evaluate the potential effect of policies or reforms on the affected parties. Case data can also be linked to other records, such as police and prison records, or to geographic areas, to better understand regional access. Finally, the data should be complemented by legal needs or court-user surveys to evaluate satisfaction with the functioning of courts, and to consider both (1) the needs of those who have access to courts and (2) of those who have a legal need but resort to other methods to resolve it.

two main limitations impeding utilization of this data. The first is difficulties in merging different databases with different definitions, IDs, or relationships for each case (Schauffler, 2014). Nonetheless, in contexts where data cannot be merged, valuable insights will still arise from comparing the results of different sources. For example, learning about access to justice in remote regions can be achieved by comparing the outcomes from legal need surveys in a region to case-level data from courts. The second limitation is related to human capital. Judicial officers are rarely experts on data analysis, and engineers generally lack the domain expertise necessary to understand the functioning of the law. In courts without sufficient human capital to take advantage of available data, training bureaucrats to learn the necessary skills may be a valuable long-term investment for improving the functioning of courts. Alternatively, there may be room for non-governmental organizations, international organizations or even private companies to meet this need.