Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article discusses how legal professionals perceive the change in their work practices and work-related boundaries as they participate in the design and implementation of a new information system. By looking empirically at a large-scale IT development project within the judicial system in Finland, the paper contributes to debates on how technology development affects the key elements of legal work and how legal expertise is perceived when designing IT systems for the public judiciary. Drawing from research literature on science and technology studies (STS), particularly literature on expertise and boundaries, the article suggests four main findings. First, IT design is seen as an additional task with clear boundaries between legal and technological knowledge. Second, the embodied aspects of legal expertise are connected to issues of autonomy and individual work practices. Third, IT design and use affect organizational flexibility and boundaries between and within organizations. Fourth, there are changes in hierarchical relations and work divisions between judges and legal secretaries.
Source: Oñati Socio-legal Series
Author: Terhi Esko
Institution: University of Helsinki
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409484737