A radical not an incrementalist1Online Courts and the Future of Justice, RICHARD SUSSKIND, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019, 368 pp., £19.99
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Author | TANIA SOURDIN |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12381 |
DOI: 10.1111/j ols.12381
BOOK REVIEW ESSAY
A radical not an incrementalist1
Online Courts and the Future of Justice
RICHARD SUSSKIND
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019, 368 pp., £19.99
Through the frustration that oozes onto many of the pages of Online Courts and the Future of
Justice, Richard Susskind is the voice of a strong and determined justice advocate. His genuine
concern about the pace of change in the legal system and enthusiasm about online courts and
greater access to justice are based on his past work and his observations about the legal profession
and what he calls the ‘irrational rejectionism’ (p.181) that is the result of sceptical attitudes towards
change. Indeed, reading his work, one forms a view that save for a few, lawyers should not be in
charge of reforming the legal system; rather,reforms should be led by others with a focus on better
ways of achieving justice. At the heart of his works is the argument that reform needs to be much
quicker and more radical rather than incremental. This book follows a string of previous works
that touch on similar themes,2all of which have garnered attention and challenged the way in
which we think about and practise law.
Perhaps the clearest indication of what you are about to read is the opening quote from Kafka.
Indeed, before progressing to his proposals for radical reform, Susskind decries what he regards
as an ineffective court system that ‘sits on a shaky foundation of law making’ (p. 29). This theme
pervades his work and is not unexpected. The issues that plague court systems around the world
are well known – courts are too costly and too slow; however, dwellingon these issues and char-
acterizing all non-online courts in this way arguably overlooks so much of the great work that
courts do. Judges, in Susskind’s evaluation, are often just muddling throughwith the advantaged
members of society, the only ones thriving in today’s justice system.
In advocating for reform, Susskind says that he falls short ‘of being a full-on, fully bearded rev-
olutionary’, though he identifies himself as being ‘much nearer the radical end’ of reform (p.31).
However, is Susskind really a radical? His work on online courts is not perhaps out of the norm.
Arguably, his work on the future architectureof the legal system is much more radical.
It is in this part of his work that he argues that technology should not merely automate; rather,
it should transform. In doing so, he proposes a new system of courts with a three-tier online
court. The first tier is focused on online assessment, the second on what is called ‘dispute con-
tainment’ (but could more accurately be referred to as ‘dispute settlement’), and the third tier
1This review draws upon T.Sourdin, Judges, Technology and Artificial Intelligence (2021).
2See R. Susskind, The Future of Law: Facing the Challenges of Information Technology (1996); R. Susskind, The End of
Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services (2008); R. Susskind and D. Susskind, The Future of the Professions:How
Technology Will Transformthe Work of Human Experts (2015); R. Susskind, Tomorrow’s Lawyers: An Introduction to Your
Future (2017).
© 2022 The Author.Journal of Law and Society © 2022 Cardiff University Law School.
J. Law Soc. 2022;49:613–622. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jols 613
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