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Joint Commission of the Federal and States Governments (Bund-Länder Commission)

At the 37 th conference of the justice ministers on 30 and 31 May 1969 a resolution was adopted to create a “Commission for Data Processing” designed to develop a judicial information system and to check all judicial sectors whether they are suitable for the use of data processing. Later on, this commission – after it had joined the federal states panel on general rationalisation issues – has become known as “Bund-Länder-Kommission für Datenverarbeitung und Rationalisierung in der Justiz (BLK)” (commission of federal states and the federal government for data processing and rationalisation in the judiciary).

In June 2012 the BLK adopted the role of a standing working group of the e-justice council founded in June 2012 as well. Since then this group has been titled “Bund-Länder-Kommission für Informationstechnik in der Justiz (BLK)“.

In the beginning, the focus of the group’s activities was centered around the dunning system, the Land Registry and the cost and accounting management. Then court registry automation and electronic legal filing procedures were added. In the meantime, the BLK is active in all areas that result from the enhanced digitalisation of the judiciary – ranging from the electronic file management to the video-based court hearings.

Many years of successful co-operation between the federal and state bodies as practiced by the BLK guarantee that any future challenges will be mastered as well.

André Nowak

Head of the Information Technology Unit (IT 3) in the Ministry of Justice of federal state of North-Rhine Westphalia