The State Archive as a Treasure Trove of Memory in a Dynamic Sense

Purpose: The article examines judicial archives held in the State Archives as documentary heritage of both legal-institutional and historical-archival significance. It aims to address their management within the digital transformation of justice, considering records creation, file management, preservation, digitisation of analogue records, and access as interconnected stages of a single records process.Methods/Approach: The article adopts a conceptual and descriptive approach to judicial archives, discussing the technical and legal requirements governing records creation and preservation. Particular attention is given to the archival bond and the relationships connecting records in the archives of public institutions and private creators.Results: Judicial archives document the activities of judicial offices, civil, criminal, and administrative proceedings, judicial decisions, and the exercise of the State’s judicial function. The archival bond is more readily apparent in public institutions subject to detailed technical and legal requirements, but it also characterises archives created by private institutions, companies, families, and individuals. These internal relationships connect records generated for the practical purposes of their creators. Access to judicial records serves research, administrative, and personal needs and is governed by internal regulations.Discussion and conclusions: The archival bond remains a defining characteristic of every archive, regardless of the creator’s institutional status or how clearly the relationships between records are visible. The digital transformation of justice calls for an integrated approach to judicial archives that connects records creation and management with preservation, digitisation, and access while maintaining the relationships that give records their archival context.