Francesco Contini
Francesco Contini is a research director at the Legal Informatics and Justice Systems Institute of the Italian National Research Council (IGSG-CNR). Since 1991, he has studied judicial systems from political science and organisational perspectives. His research deals with some of the main drivers of change in courts and prosecutors’ offices, such as information technologies, managerialization and, more generally, policies implemented to improve the quality of justice. He investigated European justice systems’ institutional, technological and organisational reconfiguration from a comparative perspective and with methods ranging from ethnographic to statistical analysis. He thinks justice systems are designed to deliver justice and redress victims, not just to process files and dispose of cases.
Engagements in technical advice projects of the Council of Europe, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and NGOs complement his research.
Selected publications
The digital transformation of the administration of justice
Digital technologies for better justice. A toolkit for action, with Antonio Cordella. Inter-American Development Bank, 2020
https://publications.iadb.org/en/digital-technologies-for-better-justice-a-toolkit-for-action
The Circulation of Agency in E-Justice, with Giovan Francesco Lanzara (eds). Springer, 2014
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-007-7525-1
ICT and innovation in the public sector, with Giovan Francesco Lanzara (eds.) Palgrave, 2009
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230227293
Law and technology in civil judicial proceedings, with Antonio Cordella, in Oxford Handbook of law and technology regulation. Roger Brownsword, Eloise Scotford and Karen Yeung (Eds.). Oxford: OUP, 2016
https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/27999/chapter/211734972?login=true
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199680832.013.47
Artificial Intelligence and Justice Systems
Artificial intelligence and real decisions: predictive systems and generative AI vs. emotive-cognitive legal deliberations, with Alessandra Minissale and Stina Bergman Blix. Frontiers in Sociology, 9, 2024
doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2024.1417766
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sociology/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2024.1417766/full
AI Accountability in Judicial Proceedings: An Actor–Network Approach, with Elena Alina Ontanu and Marco Velicogna, Laws 13: 71, 2024
doi.org/10.3390/laws13060071
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/13/6/71
Unboxing Generative AI for the Legal Professions: Functions, Impacts and Governance, International Journal for Court Administration, 15(2), 2024
http://doi.org/10.36745/ijca.604
https://iacajournal.org/articles/10.36745/ijca.604
Artificial Intelligence and the Transformation of Humans, Law and Technology Interactions in Judicial Proceedings, in Law, Technology and Humans, 2(1), 2020
doi.org/10.5204/lthj.v2i1.1478
Judicial governance and quality of justice
Handle with Care Assessing and designing methods for the evaluation and development of the quality of justice (Ed.) IRSIG-CNR, 2017
https://www.academia.edu/36129389/Handle_with_Care_Assessing_and_designing_methods_for_the_evaluation_and_development_of_the_quality_of_justice
Evaluating Judicial Performance, Special issue edited with Sharyn Roach Anleu and David Rottman. Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 4(5), 2014
https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/issue/view/36
Judicial Evaluation: Traditions, Innovations and Proposals for Measuring the Quality of Court Performance, with Richard Mohr, VDM, 2008
https://www.academia.edu/1874307/Judicial_Evaluation_Traditions_Innovations_and_Proposals_for_Measuring_the_Quality_of_Court_Performance
Disruption, crisis, injustice and societal transformation
Condition Critical Symposium. Special Section of the Journal edited with Richard Mohr and Patricia Branco. Law Technology and Human, 5(1), 2023
https://lthj.qut.edu.au/issue/view/127
Norm, normal and disruption: The role of law, knowledge and technologies in normalising social life. Special issue edited with Richard Mohr and Patricia Branco, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 12/3, 2022
https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/issue/view/111