About ACCESS

Agent-based Criminal Court Electronic Support Systems (ACCESS)

The ACCESS project focuses on whether, and to which extent, software agents can be used to maintain the integrity of information in digital dossiers. This information is acquired from different, distributed sources, and used in the semi-closed environment of the Courts in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

The ACCESS project is a joint project of:

• The Intelligent Interactive Distributed Systems Group at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. This group's research focuses on support for the development of large scale intelligent, interactive, distributed systems. This includes middleware (AgentScape), services (an agent factory and directory services), applications (distributed information retrieval and distributed design).
• The Computer Law Institute at the Vrije Universiteit studies both the legal implications of the use of IT and the prospects and limits of using IT for legal practice. Agents are one of the key research issues.

Goal of the research effort

This project proposes a new approach to information processing, supporting court officials to a better degree than currently is the case, based on the availability of the digital dossier. This project focuses on the automation of work processes related to the use of digital dossiers in the criminal courts. Two of the areas of relevance are: (1) control and (2) navigation, adaptation and presentation. The autonomous, pro-active nature of agents influences the division of responsibility and initiative in the work processes involved. The integrity of the results is, however of utmost importance. As with all technology navigation, adaptation and presentation, are the aspects which will strongly influence the effect of its use.

Acknowledgement

The ACCESS project is funded by the NWO TOKEN program.

The NLnet Foundation also funds part of the research of this project.