U.S. courts are mostly using PDFs for eFiling. There is more variability in other branches of government. But everyone on the cutting edge seems to agree that eventually all eFiling in the U.S. is going to be via XML.
Mikko, a few miscellaneous links that might be useful to you: OASIS Law & Government XML technical committees: < http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_cat.php?cat=lawgov>. National Center for State Courts Technical Standards portal: <http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Tech/standards/>. Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens ("IDABC"): < http://europa.eu.int/idabc/>. IDABC Open Source Observatory: <http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/chapter/452>. OpenEFM, <http://openefm.sourceforge.net/>. The IDABC is probably of most interest to you. IDABC is an agency of the European Commission's DG Information Society. It is charged with "encouraging" the interoperability of eGovernment and eBusiness throughout the European Union. When it comes to eGovernment interoperability issues, an IDABC recommendation is tantamount to an edict. My guess is that eFiling changes are going to come most quickly and furiously in Europe. The EC has laid down some pretty strict requirements implementing overlapping provisions of the international Agreement on Government Procurement and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade that require procurement standards and government regulations, from the E.U. level down to local government be based on international open standards . For Europe, that pretty much means ISO standards. And IDABC is, in effect, where European governments go when they look to satisfy interoperability requirements. The U.S. government largely pulled the teeth of the relevant provisions in the law ratifying those treaties. The National Center for State Courts is *the* meeting ground for those mapping the future of the U.S. electronic courthouse. On 6/16/06, Alex Thurgood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Mikko Silvennoinen wrote: Hi Mikko, > > It's more the contents that matter here. I'm now more interested of > systems and legislation > by which you can file and receive documents thrue internet. This is > more common in > other administration, but is coming to courts as well. It then very much > works in the > form that the courts and ministry of Justice wants, and there is very > strict rules on > how and in which form the exchange of information is conducted. > We have this too in the field of IP law in Europe. Each administration sets different standards for filing and filling in the required information (PDF forms, DOC forms, XML based solutions (PATXML for patent filings). At the moment, many courts in France (where I work), aren't equipped to take electronic filings. The French PTO requires that you use Windows based proprietary certificate signing software :-((, and the European Patent Office uses a smartcard reader (GemPlus) whose encryption libraries only appear to run under Windows, for which the code does not appear to be available. Alex --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
