NCJ Number
93946
Date Published
1984
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Canada's Minister of Justice and Attorney General discusses the impact of technology on both the substance and enforcement of law as well as the nature of the legal process. He emphasizes that while technology can be beneficial, it also seriously challenges individual rights and freedoms.
Abstract
Technology affects the substance of the law by presenting new problems and conditions for the law to handle. For example, the computer makes new forms of abuse and victimization possible, although it also improves the efficiency of businesses, services, and government. The law does respond, albeit slowly, to technological innovation, but it tends to take on a more central role as an instrument of social control in a technologically complex society. An appropriate legal response is particularly difficult to formulate when technology touches on basic notions of human identity, as in techniques to prolong and create human life. Technology has provided a dazzling array of instruments to assist law enforcement, and electronic surveillance has enhanced crime prevention. However, all these techniques have considerable potential to violate human rights and freedoms and must be carefully controlled. In contrast, the full potential of technology has not been applied to the nature of legal processes. Little is known about how these procedures work in practice, and critics claim that the system is simply out of touch with human values. In conclusion, a technology of the law must demonstrate practical concern for social justice and respect the dignity of the persons before the forces of the law.