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Functional Simplification Through Holistic Design: The COVL Case in Slovenia

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Book cover The Circulation of Agency in E-Justice

Part of the book series: Law, Governance and Technology Series ((LGTS,volume 13))

Abstract

COVL case study examines the design, development and functioning of an automated judicial enforcement system for monetary claims in Slovenia. The development of the system, initiated by the Registry Department of the Supreme Court, was divided into four concurrent components: legislative, technological, organisational and promotional. Decisions made in all components show that maximum simplicity and operational efficiency of the system were strived for since the very beginning. Complexity was intentionally avoided with the establishment of a single national jurisdiction and reduction of traditional legal formalisms. The new system introduced e-filing, avoided free text, simplified identification of debtor’s assets and claim processing. The system started its operations in 2008. Prior to this, backlogs in enforcement procedures inhibited debt recovery and negatively affected the economy. The transformation of a traditionally paper-based and decentralised system into a centralised and automated procedure significantly reduced the number of court staff and operational costs, but also increased the access to justice, and shortened average decision times from 6 months to 2 days. Modular development and the use of open standards allowed the system to expand and be reused by other judicial procedures.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Since the project documentation is just partially available to the public and is written mostly in Slovenian, the chapter does not refer specifically to individual documents that were used for the analysis, such as Twinning Interim Quarterly Reports and Reports of the Working Parties specified in the References.

  2. 2.

    Zakon o izvršbi in zavarovanju (ZIZ), Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, 51/1998 (17 July 1998) and its subsequent changes.

  3. 3.

    Zakon o pravdnem postopku (ZPP), Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, 26/1999 (15 April 1999) and its subsequent changes.

  4. 4.

    Zakon o elektronskem poslovanju in elektronskem podpisu (ZEPEP), Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, 57/2000 (23 June 2000) and its subsequent changes.

  5. 5.

    Similarly, technological solutions were designed in line with the SC’s strategic technological development guidelines, which promoted uniformity, modularity, reusability, scalability, compatibility, interoperability and open standards.

  6. 6.

    Zakon o spremembah in dopolnitvah Zakona o pravdnem postopku (ZPP-C), Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, 52/2007 (12 June 2007).

  7. 7.

    Pravilnik o ovojnici za vročanje po pošti v pravdnem postopku, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, 93/2008 (30 September 2008) and its subsequent changes.

  8. 8.

    Zakon o sodiščih (ZS), Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, 19/1994 (13 April 1994) and its subsequent changes; Zakon o spremembah in dopolnitvah Zakona o sodiščih (ZS-F), 127/2006 (7 December 2006).

  9. 9.

    Zakon o spremembah in dopolnitvah Zakona o izvršbi in zavarovanju (ZIZ-E), Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, 115/2006 (10 November 2006).

  10. 10.

    Pravilnik o obrazcih, vrstah izvršb in poteku avtomatiziranega izvršilnega postopka, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, 121/2007 (27 December 2007).

  11. 11.

    Zakon o sodnih taksah (ZST-1), Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, 37/2008 (15 April 2008).

  12. 12.

    Kazenski zakonik (KZ-1), Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, 55/2008 (4 June 2008).

  13. 13.

    On 1 March 2012, a web portal for enforcement was added to a wider platform, which also allows e-filing in land registry and insolvency cases. As many functionalities were changed or added to the system, this chapter describes the functioning of the web interface prior to this date: https://evlozisce.sodisce.si/esodstvo/index.html.

  14. 14.

    Users can calculate interests by using a web application developed by SC (http://izo.sodisce.si).

  15. 15.

    Previously this was done by COVL, but the work was creating bottlenecks and an industrial-scale facility was required.

  16. 16.

    Ministry of Justice and Public Administration. 2007-2012. Sodna statistika (Judicial Statistics). Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana.

    Quantitative data on cases is based on annual Judicial Statistics (Sodna statistika) reports of the Ministry of Justice, available on://www.mpju.gov.si/si/storitve_in_mnenja_mpju/uporabni_seznami_imeniki_in_evidence/sodna_statistika/ . Last accessed 30 January 2013.

    Other data is based on various reports of the Enforcement Working Group and RDSC.

  17. 17.

    Information provided to the author by Mr. Andrej Gogala from the Center for Informatics of the Supreme Court upon request to analyse the data in the enforcement information system.

  18. 18.

    ibid.

  19. 19.

    ibid.; The data, however, also includes claims which were later rejected on material grounds. As some of these might have been in the values exceeding 6-figure numbers, the average of validated enforced claims is lower.

  20. 20.

    Ministry of Justice and Public Administration, 2007-2012. Sodna statistika 2011 (Judicial Statistics 2011), p. 63.

  21. 21.

    Info provided by Ms. Nataša Kosec, the Head of COVL during the interview with the author.

  22. 22.

    Information provided to the author by CIF upon request to analyse the data in the enforcement information system.

  23. 23.

    Information provided to the author by CIF upon request to analyse the data in the enforcement information system.

  24. 24.

    Information provided to the author by Mr. Bojan Muršec, director of CIF during the interview with the author.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public Affairs Office, Supreme Court of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Gregor Strojin

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  1. Gregor Strojin
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Correspondence to Gregor Strojin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Council of Italy, Research Institute on Judicial Systems, Bologna, Italy

    Francesco Contini

  2. Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Giovan Francesco Lanzara

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Strojin, G. (2014). Functional Simplification Through Holistic Design: The COVL Case in Slovenia. In: Contini, F., Lanzara, G. (eds) The Circulation of Agency in E-Justice. Law, Governance and Technology Series, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7525-1_5

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