The Portuguese Peace Courts (Julgados de Paz) are judicial institutions designed to provide accessible, simplified, and efficient mechanisms for resolving civil disputes, with a strong emphasis on mediation, conciliation, and citizen participation.

These courts play an important role in promoting access to justice by offering an alternative approach to traditional judicial proceedings, encouraging consensual dispute resolution whenever possible.

Within this institutional environment, the digital transformation of judicial services presents opportunities to improve procedural management, communication, accessibility, and the preservation of judicial information.

The CIDADÃO project adopts the Portuguese Peace Courts as its research context, investigating how Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technology can support the modernization of judicial processes while respecting existing legal procedures, institutional responsibilities, and judicial autonomy.

The Portuguese Peace Courts (Julgados de Paz) are judicial institutions designed to provide accessible, simplified, and efficient mechanisms for resolving civil disputes, with a strong emphasis on mediation, conciliation, and citizen participation.

These courts play an important role in promoting access to justice by offering an alternative approach to traditional judicial proceedings, encouraging consensual dispute resolution whenever possible.

Within this institutional environment, the digital transformation of judicial services presents opportunities to improve procedural management, communication, accessibility, and the preservation of judicial information.

The CIDADÃO project adopts the Portuguese Peace Courts as its research context, investigating how Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technology can support the modernization of judicial processes while respecting existing legal procedures, institutional responsibilities, and judicial autonomy.

The primary objective of the CIDADÃO project is to design a Digital Justice application that integrates Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technology to support trustworthy judicial outcome registration within the Portuguese Peace Courts.

The project pursues several complementary objectives:

Judicial Process Digitalization: Support the digital execution and management of judicial procedures, from initial claim submission to final case closure.

Intelligent Registration Orchestration: Introduce an AI Registration Orchestrator to support document classification, metadata extraction, registration validation, workflow coordination, and lifecycle management.

Blockchain-Based Registration: Establish a trusted mechanism for registering judicial decisions and court-approved settlements, ensuring integrity, immutability, and traceability.

Transparency and Independent Verification: Enable the verification and auditing of registered judicial outcomes through a Blockchain Explorer.

Citizen-Centered Accessibility: Promote accessible digital interactions between citizens and judicial institutions.

Judicial Autonomy and Legal Compliance: Ensure that Artificial Intelligence supports administrative and technological activities without participating in legal interpretation, judicial reasoning, or judicial decision-making.

These objectives guide the conceptual architecture, functional requirements, and navigable proof-of-concept prototype of the CIDADÃO application.

The CIDADÃO application is designed around the operational needs of the Portuguese Peace Courts and the different actors involved in judicial proceedings.

Its principal target audiences include:

Citizens and Claimants: Individuals seeking accessible digital judicial services, including initial claim submission, document management, procedural monitoring, and access to judicial outcomes.

Defendants: Parties involved in judicial proceedings who require access to relevant procedural information, communications, and case-related activities.

Lawyers and Legal Representatives: Professionals supporting citizens throughout judicial proceedings and interacting with digital procedural services.

Administrative Officers: Court personnel responsible for procedural registration, document validation, notifications, case distribution, and administrative workflow management.

Mediators: Professionals responsible for conducting mediation procedures, managing mediation documentation, and preparing agreements for judicial approval.

Judges of Peace: Judicial authorities responsible for conducting judicial proceedings, approving settlements, and issuing judicial decisions.

The project also has relevance for researchers, public institutions, technology specialists, and professionals interested in Digital Justice, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain governance, and judicial information systems.

By adopting a citizen-centered approach, CIDADÃO seeks to improve the interaction between judicial institutions and their users while supporting the responsibilities of each judicial actor.

The central innovation of the CIDADÃO project lies in the integration of Artificial Intelligence orchestration and Blockchain-based registration within a unified Digital Justice application.

Unlike approaches primarily focused on digital evidence preservation, document authentication, or predictive judicial analytics, CIDADÃO concentrates on the registration lifecycle of legally valid judicial outcomes.

Its proposed architecture combines two complementary technological components:

Artificial Intelligence Registration Orchestrator

An intelligent coordination mechanism responsible for supporting document classification, metadata extraction, registration preparation, validation, workflow monitoring, and registration lifecycle management.

Blockchain Registration Infrastructure

A trusted registration mechanism designed to preserve verifiable records of judicial decisions and court-approved settlements, supporting integrity, immutability, traceability, auditability, and long-term preservation.

The application also introduces a Blockchain Explorer, enabling the consultation and independent verification of registration information, including cryptographic hashes, transaction identifiers, timestamps, and registration status.

A fundamental principle of the proposed architecture is the separation between judicial decision-making and technological orchestration. Artificial Intelligence does not replace judges or mediators and does not determine legal outcomes. Blockchain registration is activated only after a legally valid judicial decision or court-approved settlement has been produced.

Developed through a Design Science Research approach, the project combines scientific literature analysis, business process reconstruction, stakeholder collaboration, functional requirements elicitation, conceptual architecture design, and the development of a navigable proof-of-concept prototype.

CIDADÃO contributes to Digital Justice research by proposing a citizen-centered application that connects judicial workflows, intelligent registration orchestration, and trustworthy Blockchain infrastructure, establishing a foundation for future implementation and empirical validation.