The project aims to analyze the contribution that information and communication technologies (ICT) can make to improve criminal justice. The Covid-19 pandemic, the emergency legislation, and the subsequent reforms have considerably extended the application of video conferencing technologies. This raised a number of issues regarding the impact of the remote justice on three cornerstones of criminal procedure: the principle of immediacy, the right to the presence of the defendant at his own trial and the accused’s right to Be confronted with incriminating witnesses.
In light of these principles, it will be examined, first of all, the videoconferencing technologies currently in use by the courts, with the purpose to understand their limitations and perspectives. Secondly, it will be taken into consideration not only the most advanced forms of video conferencing, but also technologies that can realize an interaction between the real and virtual worlds. In particular, the study will involve extended reality models such as Augmented Reality (AR), Augmented Virtuality (AV) and Pure Mixed Reality (PMR). In addition, it will be explored the possibility to create a shared Metaverse courtroom, where judges, lawyers, public prosecutors, witnesses, experts, and jurors could cooperate in a digital context.
witnesses, experts, and jurors could cooperate in a digital context.
The study will be conducted with an interdisciplinary approach. In fact, the despatialisation of justice may have consequences even beyond the legal field: the development of increasingly advanced technologies in the service of criminal proceedings can lead to significant economic, industrial and environmental effects. Not to mention the ethical and philosophical issues that this phenomenon may arise.
The ultimate goal of the research is to examine the compatibility of the scenarios outlined by the various technologies taken into account with legal instruments and categories, in order to suggest viable paths for the implementation of the different degrees of ICT in the criminal proceeding and to identify those that, on the contrary, at least at the state of art, must be considered precluded.
