The Istituto di Informatica Giuridica e Sistemi Giudiziari (Institute of Legal Informatics and Judicial Systems) – IGSG of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (National Research Council) was created in 2019 from the merger of the Institute of Legal Information Theory and Techniques (ITTIG), located in Florence, and the Research Institute on Judicial Systems (IRSIG), located in Bologna.

Building on the consolidated heritage of knowledge, skills and experience of the original institutes, IGSG conducts multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and comparative research on the relationship between law and information and communication technologies, then on judicial systems, their institutional setting, the organization and interactions with the economic and social environment.

The Institute’s research activities aim:

• to analyse the impact of technological innovation on law, legal science, the activity and organisation of public institutions and on the configuration of the fundamental rights of the individual, with a particular focus on the processes of production, communication, dissemination and study, including the historical study, of the law;
• to develop theoretical and applied knowledge on the organisation and functioning of the administration of justice, with particular reference to the design and use of ICT, governance, effective and efficient management of judicial offices and proceedings, public policies for reform interventions:
• to apply knowledge representation methodologies and techniques to legal data with a view to the openness and interoperability of data and processes.

Areas and research topics of interest to the IGSG are as follows:

• legal informatics and the information and communication technologies and artificial intelligence law; knowledge sciences and technologies applied to the legal domain;
• methods and techniques for legal documentation, analysis of legal language, design and management of legal information systems;
• methods and formal models for the categorisation, structural description and semantic analysis of legal texts;
• tools and standards for access and interoperability of legal data; technological innovation in public institutions, access to legal information, digital public administration; e-justice;
• comparative judicial systems; the organisation and governance of judicial systems; the organisation and technological innovation of the administration of justice; the evaluation and quality of justice.

Researchers and technologists whose backgrounds lie in the area of social sciences (mainly law and political sciences), on the one hand, and in the areas of engineering and computer sciences and mathematics, on the other, deal with these topics by participating in nationally, European and internationally funded projects in cooperation with numerous Italian and foreign universities, research organisations and institutions.

IGSG enhances its research results through technical and scientific assistance, training, technology transfer and publishing activities.

The Institute belongs to the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Cultural Heritage (DSU).