Symposium
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Symposium Maastricht 2023
On 12-13 June 2023, the Virtual Criminal Trials symposium was held at Maastricht Law School in the Netherlands. Goal of the symposium was to gather multidisciplinary perspectives from international scholars on the impact of videolinks on different constitutional and procedural rights, the potential and perceived effects of remote justice on courtroom emotions, empathy and credibility assessment and the future of immersive virtual technology (such as avatars) in the courtroom.
The Symposium was an inspiring event that revealed synergies between scholars as well as subtle differences in approaches across countries. It was kicked off by a keynote speech from Professor Jenia Iontcheva Turner, SMU Law School, Dallas, Texas: ‘What lessons can be learned from the COVID experience’ and then followed by 4 panel sessions on the following topics:
• The dynamics of the trial: courtroom interactions in a virtual session
• The outcome of the trial: judicial decision-making
• The fair trial context: systemic due process values
• The endless potential of technology in the courtroom: how to move forward
Invited guest speakers in the different panels were: L. FLower, C. McKay, E. Rowden, P. Gibbs, S. Landstrom, M. Thommen, J. Hodgson, D. de Vocht, M. Rossner and C. Peristeridou. Participants appeared in-person and online from inter alia Australia, Belgium, England, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and United States.
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Conference Lund 2024
On 10th and 11th of June 2024, the second conference of our Network took place in Lund, Sweden. It was an exciting and inspiring event with great presentations and a lot of room for discussion. A wonderful keynote address was delivered by our very own Carolyn McKay who spoke on virtual criminal justice and vulnerability. In the panels that followed, we were able to discuss the topic of virtual criminal justice from different perspectives: the practice of working in virtual courtrooms in different jurisdictions, the giving of evidence in virtual courtrooms, emotions and experience in virtual courtrooms, due process in virtual courtrooms, transnational virtual courtrooms and the conference was closed with a fascinating session focusing on courtroom technology of the future.
Invited guest speakers in the different panels were: Dorris de Vocht, Nina Immonen, Anni Lietonen, Lennart Johansson, Marcus Larsson, Emma Olsson, Dan Jasinski, Sławomir Steinborn, Maciej Fingas, Dawid Marko, Piotr Rogoziński, Shailesh Kumar, Lisa Flower, Jessica Jacobson, Amy Kirby, Isabel Schoultz, Nina Törnqvist, Fanny Holm, Ashlee Beazley, Anna Pivaty, Lorenzo Bernardini, Christina Peristeridou, Karolina Kremens, Saskia Hufnagel, Cloé Dubuc, Avni Bahri, Arshia Sana and Volker Settgast
Participants appeared in-person and online from inter alia Australia, Belgium, England, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Poland, Finland, Italy and Poland.
A warm thank you to all participants – online and onsite – who made this conference such a wonderful event and to Riksbankens Jubileumfond for funding this conference.
