![handle is hein.journals/laws5 and id is 1 raw text is:
laws
Article
Services in the Field of Law within the Internal
Market: Promoting e-Justice through Interoperability
Gherardo Carullo
Received: 20 October 2015; Accepted: 17 December 2015; Published: 23 December 2015
Academic Editor: David S. Levine
Department of Italian and Supranational Public Law, UniversitA Degli Studi di Milano,
Via Festa del Perdono 7, Milan 20122, Italy; gherardo.carullo@unimi.it; Tel.: +39-02-503-111
Abstract: The paper addresses the problem of intra-European services provided to professionals
in the legal sector. Through a brief overview of the main services that are or may be offered
in the internal market in this field, the author identifies the lack of interoperability as one of
the most critical barriers currently preventing effective intra-community competition. The author
wonders to what degree and under which rules of the treaties a European intervention could
be justified and, therefore, what purposes could be pursued through European legislation. The
author analyses the rail transport sector to assess if, and to what degree, existing barriers to entry
could be reduced and innovation could be fostered by defining certain standards at a European
level for the interoperability of IT systems in the field of law. In particular, the example of the
rail sector is analyzed to determine the degree to which the solutions already in place for the
telematics applications for the passenger services subsystem could be replicated in the context
of the services addressed by the paper. In conclusion, the author suggests that addressing the issues
of interoperability in the legal services sector could be a useful first step towards the digitalization
of the internal market, as advocated by the Commission in its recent Communication on the digital
single market.
Keywords: European law; EU regulation; interoperability; legal services; information technologies;
digital single market
1. Delimiting the Scope of Services in the Field of Law: Upstream and Downstream Markets
In the Communication on the Single Digital Market, the European Commission has recently
affirmed that one of the top priorities is to promote an inclusive e-society, i.e., an inclusive
Digital Single Market in which citizens and businesses have the necessary skills and can benefit
from interlinked and multi-lingual e-services, from e-government, e-justice, e-health, e-energy or
e-transport [1].
In the present paper, we focus on e-justice. However, considering the language barriers and
the peculiar characteristics of each national legal system, the first question that arises is whether it is
possible at all to create an interlinked and multi-lingual ecosystem in the field of law and, if so, how
that can be achieved.
To respond to this question, we may analyze the concept of e-justice by focusing on the services
that, in the field of law, are currently provided. In this perspective, we may therefore divide the
market into two main categories: upstream and downstream services. We may include in the
former group all those services needed by, and aimed at, professionals to provide legal assistance
to their clients (upstream legal services), while all the services provided by professionals to their
clients may be categorized in the second group (or downstream services). Metaphorically, upstream
legal services could therefore be described as those flowing into the professional domain, whereas
Laws 2016,5, 1; doi:10.3390/laws5010001
www.mdpi.com/journal/laws](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/laws5&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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