Courts Litigants and the Digital Age examines the ramifications of technology for courts, judges, and the administration of justice. It sets out the issues raised by technology, and, particularly, the Internet, so that conventional paradigms can be updated in the judicial context. In particular, the book dwells on issues such as proper judicial use of Internet sources, judicial ethics and social networking, electronic court records and anonymization techniques, control of the courtroom and jurors’ use of new technologies, as well as the Internet’s impact on judicial appointments and the diversity of the judiciary. Through examination of relevant practical, legal, and ethical issues, it endeavours to extract lessons from the developing issues surveyed.

Karen Eltis is a law professor specializing in Internet law and policy (privacy and data security), comparative law, and democratic governance. She is a tenured professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, Canada (Section de droit civil), the former co-director of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, and director of the Human Rights Centre. Professor Eltis is also an associate adjunct professor and visiting scholar at Columbia Law School in New York, where she focuses on the impact of new technologies on constitutional rights. She served as senior advisor to the National Judicial Institute where her focus was bijuralism, technology, and ethics. Fluent in French, English, Hebrew, Romanian, and Spanish, Professor Eltis holds law degrees from McGill University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Columbia Law School (Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar). She clerked for Chief Justice Aharon Barak of the Supreme Court of Israel. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Ottawa, Professor Eltis was a litigation associate in New York City, practising in the area of international dispute resolution.

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"The issues raised in Courts, Litigants and the Digital Age will only grow more numerous as new technology and social media are created. Nonetheless, this is a book no judge should be without."

Mitch Kowalski, Financial Post book review (01/03/12)