The Challenges and Aspirations of the Digital Transformation of the State Council of Egypt
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American University in Cairo AUC Knowledge Fountain Theses and Dissertations Student Research Summer 6-15-2021 The Challenges and Aspirations of the Digital Transformation of the State Council of Egypt Moustafa Ahmad Kamal Mahmoud Ahmad [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds Part of the Courts Commons, and the Litigation Commons Recommended Citation APA Citation Ahmad Kamal Mahmoud Ahmad, M. (2021).The Challenges and Aspirations of the Digital Transformation of the State Council of Egypt [Master's Thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1637 MLA Citation Ahmad Kamal Mahmoud Ahmad, Moustafa. The Challenges and Aspirations of the Digital Transformation of the State Council of Egypt. 2021. American University in Cairo, Master's Thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1637 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at AUC Knowledge Fountain. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of AUC Knowledge Fountain. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The American University in Cairo School of Global Affairs and Public Policy THE CHALLENGES AND ASPIRATIONS OF THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE STATE COUNCIL OF EGYPT A Thesis Submitted to The Department of Law In partial fulfillment of the requirement for LL.M. Degree in International and Comparative Law By Moustafa Ahmad Kamal Mahmoud Ahmad Spring 2021 The American University in Cairo School of Global Affairs and Public Policy Department of Law THE CHALLENGES AND ASPIRATIONS OF THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE STATE COUNCIL OF EGYPT A Thesis Submitted by Moustafa Ahmad Kamal Mahmoud Ahmad to the Department of Law Spring 2021 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the LL.M. Degree in International and Comparative Law has been approved by the committee composed of Professor Nesrine Badawi Thesis Supervisor ______________________ American University in Cairo Date ____________________ Professor Thomas Skouteris Thesis First Reader _____________________ American University in Cairo Date ____________________ Professor Hani Sayed Thesis Second Reader____________________ American University in Cairo Date ____________________ Professor Thomas Skouteris Law Department Chair____________________ Date ____________________ Ambassador Nabil Fahmy Dean of GAPP_____________________ Date ____________________ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor Dr. Nesrine Badawi for her contributory comments, immense knowledge, and continuous support. I have really benefited a lot from her guidance. I would also like to thank the readers of my thesis: Dr. Hani Sayed and Dr. Thomas Skouteris for their valuable efforts. My sincere thanks go to Professor Diana Van Bogaert for her continuous support throughout the whole period of my studying in the LLM program. Her guidance and support was limitless and very valuable to me. I must express my very profound gratitude to my family for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Finally, I am very grateful to the Yousef Jameel GAPP Public Leadership Program, the leading financial supporter that enabled me to study at the AUC. I would like to thank the entire team of the Yousef Jameel GAPP Public Leadership Program for their support and for enabling me to study a semester abroad that benefited me in writing my thesis. iii The American University in Cairo School of Global Affairs and Public Policy Department of Law THE CHALLENGES AND ASPIRATIONS OF THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE STATE COUNCIL OF EGYPT Moustafa Ahmad Kamal Mahmoud Ahmad Supervised by Professor Nesrine Badawi ABSTRACT The use of modern technology to support the transformation of governmental public operations and services including judicial ones, with the aim of increasing efficiency, efficacy, and transparency, has spread all over the world, especially in the last four decades. This trend has existed in Egypt since the 1980s but without substantive efforts until the middle of the first decade of the current millennium. Since then, there have been several discussions, plans, and promises regarding the use of modern technology to enhance the effectiveness of the judicial operations and services, especially in light of the increasing severe criticism directed towards the Egyptian judiciary. In recent decades, judicial operations in Egypt have suffered from severe defects resulting in, among others, a notorious delay of justice, limited enforcement of judicial orders and decisions, and a widespread lack of trust in the overall performance of the judiciary. During the last two decades, there were several attempts to introduce the use of modern technology within the Egyptian justice sector. These efforts were accompanied by frequent announcements from the Ministry of Justice and the chairs of judicial councils concerning the full automation of judicial operations and services. However, these efforts have resulted in very limited results seen in scattered and minor automation of some operations and services without the introduction of any genuine fully automated or digitally transformed operations and/or services. These poor results raise several questions about the feasibility of the automation and digital transformation of the judicial processes and services themselves. This study, which focuses primarily on the Council of State as a case study, tries to respond to these questions and other associated questions about how courts might be transformed after incorporating modern technology. It offers a view on the aspiration of the desired and long awaited automation and digitalization; it also offers an analysis and discussion of the practical impediments that that were and still are affecting the progress of the efforts of the adoption, incorporation, and implementation of modern technology and techniques of the judicial processes and services in Egypt. iv Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………….1 I. Efforts of the digital transformation of judicial processes and services in The SC ……………. 9 A. The current status of the judicial processes and services ..…….…………………………..… 10 B. The benefits of the digital transformation ……….…….…………....………………………… 17 1. As for litigants and lawyers …………………………………………………………………18 2. As for court staff …………………………………………………………………………… 20 3. As for judges ………………………………………………………………………………. 22 4. As for the good administration of justice ………………………………………………….. 27 5. As for the state ………………………………………………………………………………34 C. The digital transformation and the judicial reform …………………………………………… 36 D. The history and current status of the efforts of the digital transformation …………………….48 II. The challenges facing the digital transformation of the State Council ……………..……………56 A. Internal challenges………………………………………………………….…………………. 56 1. The lack/absence of a vision on digital transformation of judicial processes and services .. 56 2. The need for institutional development / administrative restructuring ……………………. 65 3. Ineffective management of the digital transformation efforts …………………………. 72 B. External challenges ………..……………….…………………………………………………. 84 1. The lack of coordination and integration with the efforts of other relevant institutions …... 84 2. Legislative challenges ………………………………………………………………………..88 3. Financial challenges ………………………………………………………………………….101 4. General challenges facing the digital transformation of governmental services in Egypt ... 110 III. The aspirations of the digital transformation of the State Council ……………………….….… 116 A. The judicial department …………………….………………………………….…………….…..116 B. The advisory and legislation departments …………………………………………………… 130 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………….……….. 137 v List of Figures I. Figure 1: Doing Business Report 2020 - Enforcing Contracts in Egypt - Time and Cost. II. Figure 2: Doing Business Report 202 - Enforcing Contracts in Egypt- Measure of Quality. III. Figure 3: World Justice Project- Rule of Law Index - Egypt Overall Rank. IV. Figure 4: World Justice Project- Rule of Law Index - Egypt Civil and Criminal Justice Rank. V. Figure 5: Global Competitiveness Report 2019 - Egypt ICT Adoption Rank. VI. Figure 6: United Nations E-Government Survey 2020 - Egypt Rank in E- Government Development Index. VII. Figure 7: United Nations E-Government Survey 2020 - Egypt Rank in E- Participation Index. vi Introduction: The emergence of Information and Communication Technology (hereinafter ICT) in the last few decades has resulted in several changes to the nature and formation of transactions among people. The emergence of personal computers, the internet, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets have facilitated and transformed these transactions to new levels in terms of their ease, accessibility, rapidity, and effectiveness. Such a technological revolution has also transformed the transactions between governments and their citizens, as currently seen in digital and smart transactions. Almost all countries worldwide have adopted to some degree the use of modern ICT into their governmental services; however, such degree depends on the circumstances of each country such as the infrastructure, availability of human and financial