A new programme has just begun at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, called the Digital Evidence Research Programme (DERP), which has already generated tremendous interest among specialists in evidence and the IT industry. The digital world is with us for the foreseeable future and IT will continue to be used for nefarious purposes. It is for lawyers and the IT industry to combine in order to fully understand the nature of digital evidence. It is important to ensure proof of digital evidence is not sidelined into obscurity.
The aim is to conduct long-term applied research into the practical and legal issues that accompany the inclusion of digital evidence into judicial proceedings. The IT industry provides products on a global scale and IT is now ubiquitous. Information technology affects us all, even though we may not appreciate how it influences our daily lives. It also affects human relationships and, in turn, documents created by IT systems are the subject of evidence in legal proceedings.
