The Holy Union of Law and IT

A chunk of “interning” at the U.P. Office of Legal Aid involves drafting pleadings. Said task is made easy by scavenging through drafts previously made by other law interns strewn all over the OLA computers. But where none of such “left-over” pleadings suit your need, a traditional lawyer would direct you to a form book. A more “technologically-aware” one would direct you to the Internet, where you can search for websites that provide online legal forms.

This is a crude but concrete example of what Anja Oskamp and Arno R. Lodder (Information Technology Law, 2006) calls “IT for Lawyers.” Oskamp and Lodder explain that the field of Law and IT consists of two components or areas of research. The first is IT Law, which is concerned with analyzing the legal implications of IT. This is the area in which lawyers feel most at ease. The second is IT for Lawyers, which is concerned with how IT may be used in the discipline of law.

As a neophyte in Law and IT, I have all the while conceived said field as merely concerned with the legal issues and problems arising from the advancements and developments in IT (i.e., IT Law). This bifurcation of the field of Law and IT identified by Oskamp and Lodder calls attention to the reciprocal relationship of these two separate domains—the holy union of Law and IT. While technological advancements have given rise to novel legal issues (a fact recognized in the area of IT Law), said advancements have likewise given rise to a whole new world of possibilities in the practice of law (which is what IT for Lawyers is concerned about)—Law shapes IT, and IT shapes Law.

The subdiscipline of Law and IT is a rapidly growing field of law in the Philippines. The consciousness of the legal community of IT Law may be gleaned from the thriving discourses over legal issues spawned by the IT Revolution. But IT for Lawyers is not to be left out. It is already at its practical stage in this country, although perhaps many of us do not realize its existence as a particular area of Law and IT. IT is increasingly being integrated in the Philippine practice of law. The government’s promotion of electronic information and communication and law firms’ adoption and development of legal data bases and information retrieval systems are already progressive steps in IT for Lawyers in the Philippines. There are also individual efforts, such as that of Atty. Ralph A. Sarmiento, who has developed “Everyone’s Legal Forms, Professional Edition”, a legal forms software with automatic adding of pleadings requirements. (http://www.usls.edu.ph/ralph/forms/EveryonesLegalForms.html)

Given the Filipino ingenuity, there is much promise in the area of IT for Lawyers. But resource is a likely limitation. That’s where academic development and policy kicks in. IT for Lawyers must ripen into a recognized academic discipline, sufficiently mature so as to provide basis for government policy that will address the needs of this potentially rich branch of Law and IT.