Virtual Justice in Europe

Digital Justice Center and European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice will host an international seminar titled “Virtual Justice in Europe” on the 14th of May 2025 at the University of Wrocław. 

The conference will focus on the future of Virtual Criminal Justice in Europe.

The event will centre on discussing themes posed in articles to be published in a EJCCLCJ’s Special Issue on Virtual Justice in Europe. The papers deal with questions that falls under the broad theme of virtual justice in Europe.

Virtual Justice in Europe

The covid crisis learned many criminal justice systems to work with technology in order to participate in hearings in which not all participants were present on the same location. The question has arisen whether this remote or virtual justice is pandemic-related or whether it is there to stay. It is intriguing to see how many questions pop up when thinking of whether and to what extent virtual justice could be an avenue to explore. For what kind of proceedings (e.g. remand hearing, witness interrogation, full trial) is remote presence (and of whom: defendant, witness, full court) acceptable? On the basis of which criteria should this be decided? One of these issues was addressed recently in this journal in the André Klip’s Editorial “The Right to be Present Online” (Vol. 32, 2024, pp. 1–14). There the position was taken that there is a right for the defendant to choose whether he wants to be present at his hearing in person or remotely. Is that so? What are the pros and cons? By the way, what is presence in our day of age? Can evidence be tested remotely by all parties, defence rights be used, credibility of witnesses be assessed? Should we redesign the full trial?

During the seminar the EJCCLCJ will hold the Award Ceremony for the Journal’s Biannual Prize 2024. The award has been granted to Jan-Jaap Oerlemans and Dave van Toor for their article “Legal Aspects of the EncroChat Operation: A Human Rights Perspective”, published in issue 30(3–4), 2022. Oerlemans and van Toor’s article stands out for its numerous qualities, making it a significant contribution to the Journal’s legal discourse and scholarly research in European criminal justice.

The keynote speech will be delivered by Valsamis Mitsilegas, Dean and Professor of the School of Law and Social Justice at the University of Liverpool, who will be a Visiting Professor at the Digital Justice Center at the time. The speech will summarize the key themes discussed during the event.

Registration is free and required for participation. Registration form can be found here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=-b5xKxM7MkS19B9awieNDPYKtupZhB9AjYrIV-E_i79UNFQxVVVTOU82MU5QUzdDS0VVOTRLWTU4Ri4u