Jusletter IT

One of the core elements of an individual’s right of self-determination is the right to know. We may consider this a meta-level fundamental right in modern democracy. It is both a necessary precondition for the realisation of our other rights and a right in and of itself. Efforts to realise our right to know in the relationship between the individual and government have, however, included mostly guarantees of access to public documents and access to events of importance. Today, access to public documents is a fundamental right enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. This is all well and good, but in the Network Society we find ourselves rather far removed from traditional documents and traditional forms of access. We work primarily on networks in a digital environment and no longer necessarily produce paper documents. Therefore we must adopt a significantly broader perspective where information management is concerned. Our right to information, if it is to be properly realised, requires adequate knowledge of information systems and their functionality as well as of document design and document logistics. The article focuses on the requirements that must be set for the design and use of information systems if transparency is to be realised in the Network Society. This means a transparency in which our right to know is realised and, at the same time, everyone’s rights to privacy and data protection are safeguarded all the time. I call this approach to the issues «the legal welfare perspective». In the constitutional state, legal welfare must figure as prominently as the other forms of welfare that society seeks to promote.