From Formalism to Algorithmization in Judicial Law Enforcement: Limits and Opportunities in the Context of Digitalization of Justice

The article is devoted to the analysis of formalism as a method of law enforcement and its impact on the justice system in the context of modern changes. The first part of the article examines the main disadvantages of the formal approach to judicial decision-making, such as lack of skills in correctly interpreting the law, flexibility, and failure to take into account the socio-historical context of society’s development. The other part explores the positive applied aspects of formalism, which provides clear regulation of material legal relations, establishing certain requirements for recording and formalizing the facts that generate, modify or terminate them, which is an essential prerequisite for automating decision-making in court and other available data processing technologies that can improve law enforcement and increase its accessibility. The possibilities of justice transformation in the context of a combination of traditional formal methods and modern approaches are explored.