Challenges of Digital Transformation in Criminal Procedure

Abstract

Aim: Recent technological developments and their potential consequences pose novel challenges to criminal justice. Digital transformation is a necessary consideration for a modern and effective justice system; however, the rise of information technologies must also be reconciled with procedural safeguards that ensure the right to a fair trial. The aim of this study is to shed light on certain aspects of how digital technologies might affect our interpretation of some of the basic principles of criminal procedure, with an emphasis on the taking of evidence, where such fundamental requirements as the principle of immediacy have perhaps recently been somewhat neglected in favour of conducting the procedure within a reasonable timeframe.
Methodology: Our legal framework and justice system must adapt to the advent of the digital age. Certain phenomena, such as Big Data analysis, social media, data and privacy protection, cryptocurrencies, as well as artificial intelligence have recently attracted special attention from legal scholars from all fields of law. The findings of this study are based on the review of the relevant literature in the field of digital technologies and law, as well as legislation and case law from the last few decades and potential future developments.
Findings: The expansion of digital technologies into nearly all aspects of our lives is ever-present in our global collective awareness. The digital revolution challenges our previous concepts about communication, access to information and data protection, and has also already changed the way we think about work, education, or commerce. Technology has a massive potential for criminal justice
as well, including the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time. However, it may also contribute further to recent tendencies in the taking of evidence where procedural safeguards such as the principle of immediacy are sacrificed in favour of efficiency.
Value: Digital technologies open a vast array of possibilities for criminal justice, however, also allow for new forms of criminality to emerge. Digitalisation and criminal procedure have numerous implications beyond the scope of this study (e.g. predictive policing) that merit further research.