Inquiry and Imagination in Adjudication

Abstract

This comment situates the ideal of adjudication that Del Mar develops in Artefacts of Legal Inquiry within the reality of justice systems being in a ‘sorry state’; courts are generally considered too slow, too expensive and too complicated to provide meaningful access to justice to all citizens. In reaction to this justice gap, one development that is hailed by the access to justice movement is digitalisation. The use of legal technology is promoted for its promise to deliver cheaper, faster, and better justice.As Del Mar’s ideal of adjudication emphasises the value of embodied, collective, imaginative, text-based practices of inquiry among judges and other legal professionals involved, this comment also addresses the question to what extent digitalisation poses a threat to this ideal.Rather than offering a clear-cut answer, this comment is meant as an encouragement to Del Mar and other legal theorists to take heed of the justice gap and digitalisation in the justice system as part and parcel of their theories about adjudication.