"Legal technologies not only create new ways for accessing and providing legal services, but also transform the roles of legal practitioners. Major area of the application of legal technologies are courts. Some courts, e.g., in Austria, are already using legal technologies, Germany, Brazil, France, Netherlands, Russia and others are developing legal technologies. Both lawyers and users of legal services expect automated solutions to outperform people with efficiency, objectivity and impartiality. Although perception of various characteristics of legal technologies is crucial to their implementation and use, research on the perceived characteristics of the automated processes in legal contexts have just begun. One of the major obstacles to this research is lack of comprehensive understanding what legal actions could be or already are meaningfully automated, and to what extent. The aim of this study is to map decision making stages, and automation levels, and information processing features of legal activities related to (pre)trial processes. Major legal decisions and judgments related to trial processes are identified during the consultations with legal practitioners (e.g., prosecutor, judge). Next, legal activities were described and arranged according to four-stage decision making process: information acquisition, information analysis, decision selection and decision implementation. A taxonomy of levels of automation (LOA) was customized to fit legal decision making and applied to describe each major legal activity. Lastly, dual-process model of information processing was used to delineate possible roles of intuitive and rational information processing taking place during (pre)trial decision making as they could be related to human-automation interaction. Automation level analysis provides systematic approach to interaction between humans and algorithms, along with some groundwork for the research of legal technology perceived fairness and acceptance. 10 legal activities which apply both to judge’s and prosecutor’s (potentially any other lawyer’s) legal work were discerned. The application of adapted LOA (5 levels) provided some insights into legal decision making as it allows to place existing technology, test the trust in technology threshold, and have more tangible view of automation in legal activities. Moreover, a modified hybrid default-interventionist model is proposed. It brings even more depth into analysis by specifying the role of “legal” and “heuristic” intuitions as well as the part rationalization plays in potential bias sources and formation."
The paper scrutinizes the literature on accountability and non-accountability, and then presents an analysis of a South African case which demonstrated consequences of a lack of accountability. Ethical conduct displayed by members of the public sector is integral to creating a sustainable democratic government, which upholds the constitutional tenets of accountability, transparency and professional ethicality. Furthermore, a true constitutional democracy emphasises and advocates the notion of service leadership that nurtures public participation and engages with citizens in a positive manner. Ethical conduct and accountability in the public sector earns public trust; hence these are key principles in good governance. Yet, in the years since the advent of democracy in South Africa, the government has been plagued by rampant corruption and mal-administration by public officials and politicians in leadership positions. The control measures passed by government in an attempt to ensure ethicality and accountability within the public sector include codes of ethics, rules of conduct and the enactment of legislation. These are intended to shape the mindset of members of the public sector, with the ultimate aim of an efficient, effective, ethical, responsive and accountable public service. The purpose of the paper is to analyse control systems and accountability within the public sector and to present reasons for non-accountability by means of a selected case study. The selected case study is the corruption trial of Jackie Selebi, who served as National Commissioner of the South African Police Service but was dismissed from the post. The reasons for non-accountability in the public sector as well as recommendations based on the findings to enhance accountability will be undertaken. The case study demonstrates the experience and impact of corruption and/or mal-administration, as a result of a lack of accountability, which has contributed to the increasing loss of confidence in political leadership in the country as elsewhere in the world. The literature is applied to the erstwhile National Commissioner of the South African Police Service and President of Interpol, as a case study of non-accountability. Keywords—Public sector, public accountability, internal control, oversight mechanisms, non-compliance, corruption, maladministration.
The study examines the socioeconomic impact of development of an advanced industry in Israel. The research method is based on data collected from the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics and from the National Insurance Institute (NII) databases, which provided information that allows to examine the Economic and Social Changes during the 1990s. The study examined the socioeconomic effects of the development of advanced industry in Israel. The research findings indicate that as a result of globalization processes, the weight of traditional industry began to diminish as a result of factory closures and the laying off of workers. These circumstances led to growing unemployment among the weaker groups in Israeli society, detracting from their income and thus increasing inequality among different socioeconomic groups in Israel and enhancement of social disparities. Keywords—Globalization, Israeli advanced industry, public policy, socio-economic indicators.
