A Writer Needs Readers

Someone recently told me they had read my work — and appreciated it. That simple moment mattered more than I expected. Hearing that my long commitment to IT for courts still resonates reminded me that I still have things to say, and that there may still be people who want to hear it.

Over the past months, I’ve been rethinking the role of technology in justice. Technology evolves, court users’ needs shift, and the principles that anchor justice — impartial judging, independence, fairness, transparency, reasonable time — must continue to guide how we design and govern digital systems. As I wrote, this means ensuring that IT, including AI, supports performance, not just efficiency.

What surprised me was discovering that this “new thinking” wasn’t new at all. It has been present in my work since the early 2000s, from my first article in Nederlands Juristenblad to Doing Justice with Information Technology and even earlier, in a 2002 speech on “IT dreaming and reality.” The thread has always been the same: technology should strengthen the core values of justice.

My fascination with IT began even earlier. In 1984, during an internship, I encountered two enormous Wordplex machines used to produce arbitral decisions. It was primitive by today’s standards, but transformative then — a glimpse of how digital tools could improve the work of justice. That spark eventually led to the first information policy plan for the Netherlands judiciary in 2000, framing IT as a driver of performance improvement.

Rediscovering this history has reminded me why I started writing about justice and technology in the first place — and why I want to continue. There is still experience to share, still lessons worth passing on, and still readers who care about how courts evolve.

So, I’ll keep writing. And I hope you’ll keep reading.