ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE BRITISH IRISH LEGAL AND TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE BRITISH IRISH LEGAL AND EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION
President, delegates, I am delighted to be here with you today to open the Association’s Annual Conference, and I’m especially thankfully to Dr. Philip Leith for inviting me to ‘renew’ my relationship with BILETA in a new capacity. I would like also to welcome all of your delegates to Dublin for what I’m sure will be a most rewarding and enlightening weekend.
I was looking over the conference programme and it struck me how things have really changed over the last two decades – even the last few years. With sessions on “Neural Networks And Linear Regression” – or “Copyright in Cyberspace” you begin to get an inkling of the distance we have come in such a relatively short time – the mountains and hurdles we have climbed – the new frontiers that we have opened up. Today, with the cost of technology getting progressively lower, and level of computer literacy getting higher, computers are becoming part of our lives. It stands to reason therefore, that the mission of BILETA is changing gradually – the focus is moving from the ‘evangelical’ mission where we were preaching the worth of information technologies to a profession that is grounded in precedent and tradition.
Only this morning, I visited a school for the deaf and I was struck by the impact of new technologies – new software – the new communications facilities – that have opened up our world to the deaf – that have enabled deaf people to bridge a major communications gap that has prevented so many from playing their full and rightful part in society. These new technologies and developments have released a great reservoir of talent that can only serve to enhance all the professions and, indeed, society as a whole.
I am of course deeply interested in the area of legal education, and I know that those involved in legal education and training of future lawyers are entrusted with a great responsibility. My own association with BILETA goes back many years and I can recall unveiling one of my own first projects to a previous Association Conference - a computer assisted learning programme for dealing with criminal practice and procedure, for both solicitors and students. For many it was their first time to use a P.C.! or first time not to squeal at the sight of a mouse! I can also remember the days when I started lecturing - when lecturers had to type their lecture on one of those old ‘high bicycle’ typewriters that pre-dated the classic IBM typewriters – machines, I might add, which were themselves so ‘revolutionary’ when they arrived on the scene. The cost of technology up to relatively recently meant that computers were only available to the educational institutions and legal practices that could invest in them, and centralised legal databases were really only in the embryonic phase up to the late eighties. But perseverance on the part of the educational establishment - and of course of BILETA – the arrival of somebody called Bill Gates - and the availability of more sophisticated computer based learning techniques which take account of advancing technologies – have combined to give us a new generation of ‘computer comfortable’ practitioners and educators who are at ease with the new technologies – who can take them in their stride and use them to their full potential.
As I already said, the ‘evangelical’ phase of BILETA’s work is to a degree fading – computers are available to children in junior school – in their homes – and they have access to the World Wide Web. Lawyers know only too well that if they haven’t got the technology today they just cannot deliver the service which their customers want - commercial criteria alone dictate that they have to keep up with developments.
The focus of BILETA’s activity is now more towards the whole area of development and enhancement of computer-based learning, legal services and court room facilities. The Association is now a forum where educators, software developers and legal practitioners can come together to exchange information and ideas – to share insight and wisdom - on developments that are taking place with the emerging technologies – the advances that are being made in communications and data storage – the best practices that take account of those developments.
That shift in focus is reflected in this year’s conference agenda – and just think what this year’s programme would have seemed to members ten years ago – a lot of it would have looked like pure science fiction! There are interesting sessions on artificial intelligence and knowledge bases - the legal implications of trading on the internet – information technology in legal practices and in the court room. The breadth of the conference programme is a measure of how far information technology has permeated through all our lives. As the pace of development continues, we will be presented with new challenges and opportunities – new methods and new facilities. Meeting those challenges and utilising the new technologies will require constant change for individuals, educators, and institutions. While the focus of conferences such as this will change as developments unfold, we will still need to come together to open up even more new frontiers that will come up on the horizon – to capitalise on the availability of new software packages, new communications facilities and new computer-based services. Technology is widening access to the law in all its forms. This can mean citizens being able to deal with courts 24 hours a day for some transactions - direct access to judgements and texts on the Internet - awareness of developments in law across national boundaries. Wider dissemination of information should bring many advantages and, though wisdom and information are not the same, wisdom is usually found where the right amount of information is available.
In this way and in others the pace of development of technology challenges the pace of development of national and international law – indeed some of you here may have aspirations to join the emerging new profession of cyber notary!
It only remains for me again to wish you my very best wishes for a successful and enjoyable Annual Conference here in Dublin.