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?

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• 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 visioconférenceVisioconférence - Matière pénale

• 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

• 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

- 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 cross- border 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 flexible1. 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 videoconferencing4. Improve the availability of interpreters and utilize public

registers of interpreters5. 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 practices8. Prepare easy-to-use national guidelines with legal and

technical tips9. Use of uniform standards in the equipment promotes

interoperability10. Promote future visions – court-to-court, true to life, IP-to-IP

via a cross-border booking system

Videoconferencing more flexible (2)More flexilibity in the legal instruments on legal aid

and taking of evidence in civil and criminal matters

1. Clarify the contents in the relevant articles of the 2001 Regulation and of the MLA Convention of 2000

2. Enable the use of videoconferencing in future EU legal instruments and in the reform of existing legal instruments

3. Easy-to-use online dynamic forms for requests (now only in civil matters)

4. Enable direct contacts between courts (nowadays not in criminal matters)

5. Possibility to send the request and the reply by e-mail (nowadays not possible in most EU member states)

Videoconferencing more flexible (3)More flexilibity in the use of technical equipment

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 staffArticle 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

Touch-panelPC

Gatekeeper

Secondary gateway

ISDN

Primary gatewayIP gateway

WAN

WAN

Finnish authorities

Courts Prisons Prosecutors

External calls

IP gateway

WAN

European authorities

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)

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!