Russia’s expectations of society from justice: will digitalization help?

The article explores the importance of justice in the life of society in conjunction with the rapidly developing processes of judicial digitalization. The data of domestic sociological studies are presented. It is reflecting the expectations of the Russian society from justice, which determine what requirements citizens make to judges. The article analyzes the ongoing “digital reform” in the field of justice, its program aims and objectives, the results achieved, as well as the impact of these results on the perception of the judicial system by society, and trust to it. It is stated that, a significant part of the stated program aims in the field of digitalization as a result of the implementation of the relevant federal programs has been achieved. However, despite some interconnection with society through the introduction of digital technology, the level of trust to the judiciary remains extremely low. The declared and achieved aims of the development of information technologies are applied. They have pragmatic nature, associated primarily with the acceleration of legal proceedings and rationalization of the doing of the judiciary and those involved in the orbit of their activities. However, the expectations of society are in the plane of comprehension, justice, adequacy of actions and decisions of judges, and are, rather, moral and professional nature, not limited to universally implemented information technologies. In this regard, it was concluded that the stated and achieved goals of the digitalization of the judicial sphere do not coincide with the expectations set by society for its functioning.