Transcript Videoconferencing in the courts

Visioconférence transfrontalière
Cross-border Videoconférencing
-Journées européennes d’informatique juridique,
Paris 22-23 novembre, 2012
Aki Hietanen,
Ministère de la Justice, Finlande
Videoconferencing – perfect tool for E-Justice?
- Slow justice vs. E-Justice
- Videoconferencing is a multipurpose tool
(technology suitable for many purposes,
not only for court sessions)
- Finance: the savings can be easily
identified (costs of transporting prisoners)
• Efficiency: speeds up the process, no
need to postpone hearings
• Security (court staff, witnesses)
• Humane (vulnerable witnesses)
Pourquoi visioconférence?
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L’utilisation de la visioconférence en
matière judiciaire offre de multiples
avantages
Finance
Efficacité
Securité
Humain
Nationale +
transfrontalieré
Videoconferencing – current status
• There is no exact information on how frequent is the
use of videoconferencing in cross-border hearings or
at the national level between courts, prisons, police
and prosecutors
• Many experts are convinced that videoconferencing
could be used much more often
• There are several EU level legal instruments
supporting the use of videoconferencing
• The challenge – many know the benefits and the
broad legal basis, but the actual use is at a low level
Legal instruments for VideoC
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Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters between the Member
States of the European Union (Convention of 29 May 2000, the 2000 MLA
Convention, Article 10)
Council Regulation (EC) on cooperation between the courts of the Member
States in the taking of evidence in civil and commercial matters (No
1206/2001 of 28 May 2001, Article 10(4))
Council Directive relating to compensation to crime victims (2004/80/EC of
29 April 2004, Article 9(1))
Regulation (EC) of the European Parliament and of the Council
establishing a European Small Claims Procedure (No 861/2007 of 11 July
2007, Articles 8 and 9(1))
Council Framework Decision on the standing of victims in criminal
proceedings (2001/220/JHA of 15 March 2001, Article 11(1))
European Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (April
10,1959), second additional protocol
Directive 2010/64/EU on the rights to interpretation and translation in
criminal proceedings (implementation by 27.10.2013)
Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5
April 2011 on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and
protecting its victims, and replacing Council Framework Decision
2002/629/JHA
For most EU Member States these instruments are already applicable.
+ National legislation => Increasing number of legal instruments
Refus d’utiliser la visioconférence
Visioconférence - Matière pénale
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Refus d’utiliser la visioconférence:
l’État membre requis consent à l’audition par visioconférence pour autant
que le recours à cette méthode ne soit pas contraire aux principes
fondamentaux de son droit et à condition qu’il dispose des moyens
techniques permettant d’eff ectuer l’audition.
Convention du 29 mai 2000 relative à l’entraide judiciaire en matière
pénale, l’article 10, paragraphe 9, prévoit que le recours à la
visioconférence peut être étendu aux personnes poursuivies pénalement.
Chaque État membre peut décider en toute liberté s’il accepteranon
d’exécuter les demandes relatives à ces auditions.
Visioconférence - Matières civiles et commerciales
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Refus d’utiliser la visioconférence:
la juridiction requise défère à cette demande, à moins que cela ne soit
incompatible avec le droit de l’État membre dont elle relève ou en raison de
difficultés pratiques majeures.
Videoconferencing – legal and practical aspects
• There is a solid legal basis for using
videoconferencing in cross-border cases
• BUT: No detailed rules concerning the practical
arrangements of videoconferencing
• BUT: No rules have existed concerning the
interpretation,
• e.g. agreement between the EU and Japan on
mutual legal assistance in criminal matters: “at
the request of the requesting State or the person
to be heard, the requested State will ensure, if
necessary, that the person is assisted by an
interpreter;”
• A new era starting: EU Directive 2010/64/EU
on the right to interpretation and translation
in criminal proceedings
Interpretation in Videoconferencing
EU Directive 2010/64/EU on the right to
interpretation and translation in criminal
proceedings
“ Where appropriate, communication technology such as
videoconferencing, telephone or the Internet may be used,
unless the physical presence of the interpreter is required in
order to safeguard the fairness of the proceedings.”
Preamble of the directive:
(28) When using videoconferencing for the purpose of remote
interpretation, the competent authorities should be able to rely
on the tools that are being developed in the context of
European e-Justice (e.g. information on courts with
videoconferencing equipment or manuals).
- Information on the use of interpreting in criminal
proceedings has been collected in AVIDICUS projects
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http://www.videoconference-interpreting.net/Avidicus.html
Videoconferencing and Human Rights?
There are only a few European Court of Human Rights
judgments concerning the use of videoconferencing or other
techn in court proceedings.
• Viola 27/11/2007 (§67)
« la participation de l’accusé aux débats par vidéoconférence
n’est pas, en soi, contraire à la Convention »
• Lawyer Partner 16/06/2009 (§54)
« Quant à l'argument avancé par les juridictions internes
selon lequel elles ne disposaient pas du matériel nécessaire
pour traiter les actions de la requérante, la Cour rappelle que
la possibilité de communiquer des documents par voie
électronique figurait dans le droit interne depuis 2002. »
• Sakhnovski 2/11/2011
« la communication par visioconférence n’a pas offert la
confidentialité nécessaire entre l’avocat et son client. »
Conclusions: CEDH considère que la visioconférence est
compatible avec le droit à un procès équitable mais elle est
attentive aux garanties qui entourent son utilisation.
Videoconferencing in the e-Justice portal
• Information on general videoconferencing policy;
• A booklet prepared by the Council of the EU,
containing information on the legal framework,
technical issues and good practices in cross-border
videoconferencing
• A manual providing more detailed information for
practitioners (e.g. judges, court clerks, and court
technicians);
• Information on national facilities - enables
practitioners to find out whether VC equipment is
available in a specific court in another Member State;
• Dynamic forms that currently concern only crossborder proceedings in civil and commercial matters
(according to Council Regulation of 2001). They
enable the requesting court to fill in requests online,
to check whether a request is complete, to print,
save, translate into the language of the requested
court and email such documents.
Videoconferencing more flexible
Less bureaucracy – more flexilibity in the legal instruments
on legal aid etc.
2. More flexible technical equipment (portable equipment for
hearing witnesses in hospitals, etc.)
3. Raise the awareness of judges, prosecutors, advocates and
court staff on the advantages of videoconferencing
4. Improve the availability of interpreters and utilize public
registers of interpreters
5. Build-up of trust in the preparations (the roles of participants)
6. Training of judges, prosecutors and advocates
is needed
7. Collect and share good practices
8. Prepare easy-to-use national guidelines with legal and
technical tips
9. Use of uniform standards in the equipment promotes
interoperability
10. Promote future visions – court-to-court, true to life, IP-to-IP
via a cross-border booking system
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Videoconferencing more flexible (2)
More flexilibity in the legal instruments on legal aid
and taking of evidence in civil and criminal
matters
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Clarify the contents in the relevant articles of the
2001 Regulation and of the MLA Convention of
2000
Enable the use of videoconferencing in future EU
legal instruments and in the reform of existing legal
instruments
Easy-to-use online dynamic forms for requests
(now only in civil matters)
Enable direct contacts between courts (nowadays
not in criminal matters)
Possibility to send the request and the reply by email (nowadays not possible in most EU member
states)
Videoconferencing more flexible (3)
More flexilibity in the use of technical equipment
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Finland has started installing different kinds of
videoconferencing equipment for different
purposes.
For the courtrooms, there is a complete set, with
high-definition (HD) quality of picture in cameras
and screens.
For the preliminary hearings, these is a separate
set for meeting rooms.
For hearing witnesses is a basic set with a terminal,
camera and microphone.
For mobile use, e.g. in social centres, hospitals,
asylum centres etc. is the portable version,
including a laptop with software and a camera.
Videoconferencing more flexible (4)
- Build-up of trust in the preparations of videoconf.
-> Clarify the roles of participants
- Who is in charge of the hearing
- Participants need to be made aware how the
court session will proceed and which courts
or other locations are connected
- Information on where the participants are located
- Role of the interpreter (especially in remote
interpreting, simultaneous/consecutive)
- Role of technical staff
Article 6 of the directive 2010/64/EU:
“Member States shall request those responsible for the training
of judges, prosecutors and judicial staff involved in criminal
proceedings to pay special attention to the particularities of
communicating with the assistance of an interpreter so as to
ensure efficient and effective communication.”
Visioconferencé – Futurs projets
• des liens vers les législations de l'Union et des États
membres régissant le recours à la visioconférence;
• des informations compilées sur toutes les juridictions
disposant d'équipements de visioconférence dans les
États membres;
• des outils destinés à l'organisation pratique des
visioconférences (formulaires électroniques,
éventuellement un système de réservation dans le
long terme);
• des liens vers des instructions ou manuels nationaux,
s'il en existe;
• une rubrique présentant des exemples de
visioconférence dans des procédures
transfrontalières et un recueil de bonnes pratiques;
• des renseignements sur les formations et des
modules de formation en ligne;
• un lien vers les bases de données d'interprètes
interconnectées.
Getting Connected – the Future Infrastructure
Courts
Prisons Prosecutors
WAN
Gatekeeper
IP gateway
PC
WAN
IP gateway
Primary gateway
WAN
European authorities
Finnish authorities
ISDN
Secondary gateway
External calls
What could be done?
• The Study on the Application of the Taking Evidence
Regulation 2001 proposed already in 2007:
• Creation of a body within the justice administrations
entrusted with strategic planning and implementation
of videoconferencing
• Installation of the appropriate equipment in the
selected court buildings
• Programme to provide legal practitioners with training
and information
• Preparing a list of courts with videoconference
facilities
• Establishment of specific legislation regulating cases
in which videoconferencing can be used, and the
conditions governing its use, at EU level. This would
contribute towards its normalisation and would foster
its use.
Visioconferencé - Finlande
Finland has experience in the use of
videoconferencing in cross-border court
proceedings
– First experiences with Estonia fifteen years ago
– All courts, prisons and prosecutor offices with
videoconferencing equipment
– Challenging experiences: hearing of witnesses
in Rwanda genocide case in 2010 and in
football & money laundering case in Sambia in
2011
– First experiences with hearing witnesses from
Russia (a booklet has been prepared by
Finland for Russian authorities)
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Visioconférence – Obligations
Le recours à la visioconférence impose aux
Etats de nombreuses obligations :
Obligation de mise à disposition des moyens
nécessaires,
Obligation de vigilance à la fois pour prévenir les
incidents techniques et pour veiller au respect
des droits de la défense,
Obligation aussi, de formation des acteurs de la
justice à ces techniques de communication.
Aide Pratique:
Le Portail européen E-Justice
https://e-justice.europa.eu
- Guide sur la Visioconférence dans les Procédures
judiciaires transfrontiéres
- Livret: La Visioconférence dans le cadre de la Justice
en Ligne européenne
Le Guide et le Livret
Questions?
e-mail: aki.hietanen(a)om.fi
Merci
Beaucoup!