Digitalisation of judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters within the European Union

Cross-border taking of evidence through the prysm of decentralised IT platform e-CODEX

Abstract

The contribution deals with the new EU rules on the taking of evidence abroad in civil and commercial matters covered by the Regulation (EU) n. 1783/2020. First, the author describes the main aspects of the Regulation, with particular emphasis on the provisions dedicated to e-justice. One of the main focuses of the paper is the “digital by default” principle, that identifies the digital channel as the preferred method of communication between authorities of Member States. The coordination amongst national judicial systems lays on a decentralised and interoperable IT platform, based on the e- Justice Communication via Online Data Exchange technology (e-CODEX): the taking of evidence exchange system (ToE). Therefore, in light of the Regulation (EU) n. 850/2022, the author introduces the most important features of the e-CODEX. Finally, the last part of the paper addresses the issue of the compatibility between the use of the abovementioned technology and the protection of fundamental human rights.