The Virtual Criminal Justice Conference

Lund 10-11 June 2024

The conference includes five core panels:

1. Accomplishing virtual participation.
2. Video links in practice.
3. Due process.
4. Evaluation of credibility, remorse and guilt.
5. Virtual reality trials and beyond.

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Registration for The Virtual Criminal Justice Conference.

Conference Programme

DAY 1 (MONDAY 10 JUNE 2024)

8.30-9.00: Registration and coffee

9:00-9:30: Welcome and Keynote speech: Carolyn McKay (University of Sydney Law
School, Australia): “Virtual criminal justice and vulnerability” 

9:30-11:30: Session 1 – Working in virtual courtrooms

• Dorris de Vocht (University of Tilburg, the Netherlands), “This TV is talking to me: remote justice in Dutch criminal procedure”
• Nina Immonen (Department of Development, Finland): “The real thing in the Finnish courtrooms: digital presence and the myth of digitalization making things easier for the courts”
• Anni Lietonen & Julia Korkman (European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI)): “Experiences of Finnish district court judges on using remote hearings and pretrial recordings”

Panel discussion: Lennart Johansson (Judge, Helsingborg District Court, Sweden), Marcus Larsson, (Lawyer, Luterkort Advokatbyrå, Sweden), Emma Ohlsson (Prosecutor, Malmö, Sweden)

11:30-11:45: Coffee break

11:45-13:15: Session 2 - Giving evidence in virtual courtrooms

• Dan Jasinski (University of Northampton, UK): “Evidential issues in technology enhanced trials: the demise of the ‘smoking gun’?”
• Sławomir Steinborn, Maciej Fingas, Dawid Marko, Piotr Rogoziński (University of Gdansk, Poland), & Michał Parzuchowski (University SWPS Poland): “Hearing of a witness in the courtroom vs. videoconference: preliminary results of an empirical research”
• Shailesh Kumar (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK): “Using video-links in child sexual abuse trials in India: child-friendliness by virtual participation or compromising the due-process?”

13:15- 14:30: Lunch

14:30-16:00: Session 3 – Emotions and experience in virtual courtrooms

• Lisa Flower (Lund University, Sweden): “Video-links, digital justice rituals and courtroom atmospheres”
• Jessica Jacobson & Amy Kirby (Birkbeck University of London, UK): “Video-link attendance and quality of experience: a comparative analysis”
• Isabel Schoultz (Lund University, Sweden), Nina Törnqvist (Uppsala University, Sweden) & Fanny Holm (Umeå University, Sweden): “Distances and glitches – notes on emotion work over video links"

16:00-16:15: Coffee

16:15-17:00: Discussion

18:00: Conference dinner (invited speakers)

DAY 2 (TUESDAY 11 JUNE 2024)

8:30-9:00: Coffee

9:00-11:00: Session 4 - Due process in virtual courtrooms

• Ashlee Beazley (KU Leuven, Belgium): “Lawyer-client confidentiality, virtual (remote) participation and the lack of a minimum standard: how should key components of the right to an effective defence be guaranteed “online”?
• Anna Pivaty (Radboud University, the Netherlands): “The lawyer in virtual criminal proceedings and the defendant's access to criminal justice”
• Lorenzo Bernardini (University of Luxembourg): “Conceptualizing digital participation of criminal trials in Europe: how should we construct it?”
• Christina Peristeridou (Maastricht University, the Netherlands): “Aims of the criminal trial and virtual proceedings”

11:00:11:15: Coffee

11:15-12:45 Session 5 - Transnational virtual courtrooms

• Karolina Kremens (University of Wrocław, Poland): “Videoconferences in the EU cross- border criminal proceedings under European Investigation Order”
• Saskia Hufnagel (University of Sydney, Australia): “Video-links in international cooperation in criminal matters”
• Cloé Dubuc (Canada Research Chair in International Criminal Justice and Human Rights): “Digital witnesses: video-link testimonies and the fairness of proceedings at the International Criminal Court”

12:45-13:45: Lunch

13:45-15:15 Session 6 – Avatars and virtual reality in the courtroom

• Avni Bahri & Arshia Sana (Jindal Global Law School, India): “Justice in 3D: navigating virtual reality in criminal trials in India”
• Volker Settgast (Fraunhofer Austria Research Gmbh): “Remote court hearings with virtual avatars”

15:15-15:30 Closing of the conference

The Virtual Criminal Justice Network

The conference is organised by the Virtual Criminal Justice Network, an interdisciplinary network founded by researchers at Lund University, Maastricht University, Tilburg University and the University of Sydney.

More information on the Virtual Criminal Justice Network.