E-Estonia Showroom by Annika Haas (EU2017EE. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
ARTICLE
LegalTech in the most advanced digital society in the world I
grew up in the old Soviet Union and for me, as for many other Soviet citizens, the three Baltic republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) were a strange island of relative liberalism in the USSR. They had medieval towns, signs in Latin alphabet letters, cosy cafes serving real coffee, glossy magazines and far greater numbers of young people wearing jeans. Locally manufactured magnetic taperecorders and cassette-players, though highly desirable, were often unattainable for most Soviet households as they were regarded as items of “non first-necessity”. However, even in regions considered advanced by Soviet standards, the handicap of operating within the command and control economy meant that they struggled to compete with companies based in free market economies. Yet in less than 30 years since re-gaining their independence, these three countries have made huge progress in developing their industries to become highly competitive on the world stage. In particular, Estonia is famous for building its digital economy and is recognised as the most advanced digital society in the world with locally bred $1billion unicorns like Skype, Taxify, TransferWise and Playtech.
e-Estonia Branding itself as e-Estonia, the country has embraced the digital way of life with: ■ 99% of state services now online. ■ 99% of local residents using electronic ID-cards. ■ Almost half of the population voting via the internet in state and EU elections. Estonia is expanding its digital agenda beyond its borders and now offers e-Residency to foreign entrepreneurs wishing to benefit from the government e-services platform and has also established the first data embassy in Luxembourg. The government continues to make investments in developing an efficient, secure and transparent digital ecosystem, connecting citizens and businesses with state-provided services via X-Road, an integrated data-exchange platform. This ambitious project includes e-Law, e-Justice and e-Police systems built on locally designed KSI blockchain technology. Bringing AI into the administration of justice, with robot-judges deciding simple contract disputes, is next on the agenda. Continued on next page CENTRAL LONDON LAWYER | 27
