Blockchain for Democratic Justice: Innovating the Service of Judicial Documents to Uphold the Rule of Law

Authors

  • Ioannis Revolidis University of Malta
  • Marica Ciantar
  • Joshua Ellul University of Malta

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ledger.2025.392

Keywords:

judicial documents, Blockchain technology, EU law, electronic service, cross-border litigation

Abstract

The service of judicial documents is fundamental to ensuring access to justice, as outlined in Article 47(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This paper explores the evolving legal framework for serving judicial documents in the EU, with a particular focus on the Recast Service of Documents Regulation. The Regulation introduces the possibility of electronic service, addressing inefficiencies in traditional methods. However, challenges remain due to varying national procedural laws and technological limitations. This paper examines how blockchain technology could enhance the electronic service of judicial documents, offering a more secure, efficient, and interoperable solution across Member States. By leveraging blockchains’ decentralised and immutable characteristics, the service process could become more reliable, particularly in cross-border disputes, thus strengthening procedural guarantees within the EU.

References

Anthimos, A. “Article 19 - Electronic Service.” In The European Service Regulation - A Commentary. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing (2023).

Barents, R. “EU Procedural Law and Effective Legal Protection.” Common Market Law Review 51.5 1437–1461 (2014) https://doi.org/10.54648/cola2014112.

Biedermann, B., Scerri, M., Kozlova, V., & Ellul, J. “Aggregating Digital Identities through Bridging.” Distributed Ledger Technologies: Research and Practice (February 2025) https://doi.org/10.1145/ 3719661.

Buterin, V., Conner, E., Dudley, R., Slipper, M., Norden, I., Bakhta, A. “EIP-1559: Fee Market Change for ETH 1.0 Chain.” Ethereum Improvement Protocols (accessed 4 June 2025) https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1559.

Camenisch, J. et al. “The Internet Computer for Geeks.” Cryptology ePrint Archive 2022/087 (accessed 5 June 2025) https://eprint.iacr.org/2022/087.

CJEU. “Andrew Marcus Henderson v Novo Banco SA.” Case C-354/15 (2017) ECLI:EU:C:2017:157 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri= celex:62015CJ0354.

CJEU. “Götz Leffler v Berlin Chemie AG.” Case C-443/03 (2005) ECLI:EU:C:2005:665 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX:62003CJ0443.

CJEU. “Plumex v Young Sports NV.” Case C-473/04 (2006) ECLI:EU:C:2006:96 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX:62004CJ0473.

Cobb, C. (2004). Cryptography for Dummies. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons (2004).

Deters, H., Elsner, N. “Digitalisierungselemente in der EuZVO und EuBVO 2020.” In Göttinger Kolloquien zur Digitalisierung des Zivilverfahrensrechts, Band 3. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen 51 (2024).

Eser, A. “Artikel 47.” In Charta der Grundrechte der Europäischen Union. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag (2014).

European Commission. “Commission Staff Working Document Accompanying the Document Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the Evaluation of Regulation (EC) No 910/2014 on Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions in the Internal Market (eIDAS).” SWD (2021) 130 Final (2021) (accessed 1 April 2025) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52021SC0130.

European Commission. “Impact Assessment Accompanying the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council Amending Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Service in the Member States of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (Service of Documents).” SWD(2018) 287 Final (2018) (accessed 1 April 2025) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52018SC0287.

European Commission. “Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council Amending Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Service in the Member States of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (Service of Documents).” COM(2018) 379 Final (2018) (accessed 1 April 2025) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52018PC0379.

European Parliament, Council of the European Union, European Commission. “Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.” Official Journal of the European Union C326 (2012) (accessed 5 June 2025) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:12012P/TXT.

European Parliament, Council of the European Union. “Consolidated Text: Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions in the Internal Market and Repealing Directive 1999/93/EC.” EUR-Lex 02014R0910-20241018 http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2014/910/2024-10-18.

European Parliament, Council of the European Union. “Regulation (EU) 2024/1183 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 Amending Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 as Regards Establishing the European Digital Identity Framework.” EUR-Lex 32024R1183 (accessed 5 June 2025) http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1183/oj.

Galera, S. “The Right to a Fair Trial in the EU: Lights and Shadows.” Revista de Derecho Político 87 49-76 (2013) https://doi.org/10.5380/rinc.v2i2.44509.

Hess, B. Europäisches Zivilprozessrecht. Berlin: De Gruyter (2021).

Kahmann, F., Honecker, F., Dreyer, J., Fischer, M., & Tönjes, R. “Performance Comparison of Directed Acyclic Graph-Based Distributed Ledgers and Blockchain Platforms.” Computers 12.12 (2023) https://doi.org/10.3390/computers12120257.

No Author. “Bloxberg Block Explorer” (accessed 5 June 2025) https://https://blockexplorer.bloxberg.org/.

No Author. “D’Aloia v Person Unknown & Others.” (2022) EWHC 1723 (Ch) https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2022/1723.html.

No Author. “EU Digital Identity Wallet.” (accessed 5 June 2025) https://ec.europa.eu/ digital-building-blocks/sites/display/EUDIGITALIDENTITYWALLET/EU+Digital+Identity+ Wallet+Home.

No Author. “Fabrizio D’Aloia v (1) Persons Uknown Category A (2) Binance Holdings Limited (3) Polo Digital Assets Inc. (4) Gate Technology Corp (5) Aux Cayes Fintech Co Ltd (6) Bitkub Online Co Ltd (7) Persons Unknown Category B.” (2024) EWHC 2342 (Ch) https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2024/2342.html.

No Author. “Introducing EBSI.” EBSI European Blockchain (accessed 5 June 2025) https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/display/EBSI/Home.

No Author. “Lavinia Deborah Osbourne v (1) Persons Unknown Category A (2) Fiona Cowton Persons Unknown Category B (3) Thembani Dube.” (2023) EWHC 340 (KB) https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/KB/2023/340.html.

No Author. “LCX AG v John Doe Nos. 1-25, 1.274M U.S. Dollar Coin, and Circle Internet Financial LLC and Centre Consortium LLC.” Supreme Court of the State of New York, Commercial Division, Part 48, 154644/2022 https://www.nycourts.gov/Reporter/pdfs/2022/2022_32834.pdf.

Revolidis, I. “On Arrogance and Drunkenness - A Primer on International Jurisdiction and the Blockchain,” Lex & Forum 2.2 (2022) https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4234569.

Simoni, A., Pailli, G. Final Report—Study on the Service of Documents—Comparative Legal Analysis of the Relevant Laws and Practices of the Member States. JUST/2014/JCOO/PR/CIVI/0049 (2014).

Stein, A. “The European Service Regulation: Introduction.” In The European Service Regulation - A Commentary. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing (2023).

Stürner, M. “Article 8-Transmission of Documents.” In The European Service Regulation - A Commentary. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing (2023).

Ulrici, B. “Artikel 19 - Elektronische Zustellung.” In Europäisches Zivilprozess- und Kollisionsrecht EuZPR/EuIPR, Band II-II: Die neue EU-Zustellungsverordnung. Cologne: Otto Schmidt (2023).

Ulrici, B. “Artikel 20 - Unmittelbare Zustellung.” In Europäisches Zivilprozess- und Kollisionsrecht EuZPR/EuIPR, Band II-II: Die neue EU-Zustellungsverordnung. Cologne: Otto Schmidt 368-373 (2023).

Wong, D. Real-World Cryptography. Shelter Island: Manning Publications Co. (2021).

Downloads

Additional Files

Published

2025-07-02

How to Cite

Ioannis Revolidis, Ciantar, M., & Ellul, J. (2025). Blockchain for Democratic Justice: Innovating the Service of Judicial Documents to Uphold the Rule of Law. Ledger, 10, 77–94. https://doi.org/10.5195/ledger.2025.392

Issue

Section

INATBA Blockchain Horizons Invitational