ICAB creates the Digital Transformation Commission to face the challenges that the current digital revolution raises in the legal field
The Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB) has presented this morning the new Digital Transformation Commission, under the leadership of the President of the Bar Association, Mª Eugenia Gay, and the direction of the member of the Governing Board and expert in ITC, Rodolfo Tesone.
The Digital Transformation Commission was created with the aim of effectively prepare the law professionals to face the new needs that the digital revolution poses, especially in the legal field.
The College wants to be the engine of this change, as it is an institution serving the lawyers of Barcelona and also society. In this sense, Mª Eugenia Gay highlighted, in a press conference, that “it will be necessary” to tackle the digital training of the lawyers by raising the awareness of the importance of the question and the training in legal formation and digital skills”.
Rodolfo Tesone, on the other hand, explained that ICAB has detected a lack of the rule of law in the new digital world and has considered it necessary to adapt the current legal order to the new digital reality of the citizens. “Everyone has to be guaranteed their rights and legal security, also, in the digital environment. Technology brings many advantages to our daily and professional lives, but sometimes it can threaten to hack our data and even democracy, “he said.
Technological advances pose challenges in many areas, also in Law. The massive use of social networks and instant messaging applications, such as WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal; the recruitment of on-line services; online shopping; cyberbullying or digital harassment; or the possibilities of privacy control and privacy invasion that are allowed by new technologies are some of the issues related to the digital life that, from the point of view of the Barcelona Bar Association, require greater and better cross-border regulation.
“In matters of ICT Law, it is necessary to go beyond the borders, and to bet on a unified international regulation that allows the resolution of digital conflicts that grow exponentially on a global gameboard, with difficult resolution by, only using systems of state jurisdictions, “stressed the President, Mª Eugenia Gay.
The current technological context has had a major impact on politics and society, and Justice cannot be left out. For this reason, the Digital Transformation Commission will work intensely to adapt the Law to the new social reality, since, in general, the Justice Administration has not been modernized at the same pace as technology.
“It is very important that the law, also in the digital environment, always put at the center of the regulation the citizens, as digital users and human beings, and avoiding the temptation to consider them merely the merchandise of the digital world,” Tesone said.
For this reason, the Digital Transformation Commission of the ICAB will act as an R & D & I lab, providing proposals for regulatory and legislative reforms in the digital field both here and in Brussels (EU). It will do so with strategic alliances that will create and lead both locally, nationally and internationally, as well as at an interprofessional level, and always counting on the collaboration of institutions, associations and operators of digital services.
He will also collaborate closely with the College’s Standards Commission to raise all these needs in the different parliamentary groups. The idea is that ICAB can act as a social lobby in order to become a hub that will lead the Digital Transformation of Advocacy and be at the forefront of Digital Law.