Join us for a 1-day workshop examining the relation between law and images in light of the rise of digital courtrooms in diverse jurisdictions such as the UK, Australia, India and China.
2025 marks a century since sec 41 of the Crime and Justice Act of 1925 banned cameras, sketches, and portrait-making in all courtrooms in England and Wales. Since the creation of the UK Supreme Court, over the last 20 years, these restrictions have slowly been softened, and today many courts in the UK livestream their proceedings directly to the citizens, and other are planning to follow suit.
This (re)introduction of cameras into courtrooms is accompanied by a wider transformation from physical to virtual/hybrid courts and the establishment of digital infrastructure for court management systems. This transformation also coincides with a shift from traditional media to social media, where visual culture seems to be replacing the power of the text, traditional public spheres are becoming virtual, and the citizen’s relationship with the state is increasingly digitised.
Drawing on the experiences of digital courtrooms in the UK, Australia, China, India and other jurisdictions, workshop papers will reflect on what lies ahead for law’s relation to images in the new digital era, and how the transformation of the medium may impact ideas of judicial transparency and accountability and notions of open justice in the 21st century.
Please join us also for the launch of courtofimages.com
Workshop: Marking 100 years of the ban on cameras in courtrooms
Friday, 21 June 2024, 9:15 – 17:15
S118 Senate House and online
SOAS University of London
Registration and further info at this link.
9:15 – 9:30 Welcome tea and coffee
9:30 – 11:15 Session 1
Capturing courtrooms: Sketches, landscapes, cinema, and theatre
Speakers:
Laura Glotter (University of Heidelberg), Capturing Justice: The Artistry and Artificiality of Courtroom Sketches in the UK
Sarah-Jane Coyle (Queen University Belfast), ‘In exactly the same words as were used originally’: Verbatim Theatre and the Performance of Court Archives
Marcus VAB de Matos (Brunel University, London), Post-apparatus theory: the camera, the courtroom, Behave…and Justice for all
Discussant: Piyel Haldar (Birkbeck, University of London)
11:15 – 11:30 Break
11:30 – 12:20 Session 2
Digital courts: The experience of trial participants
Speakers:
Doris de Vocht (Tilburg University), The right to a fair trial in the digital era
Shailesh Kumar (Royal Holloway, University of London), Cameras in the (special) Courtroom dealing with Child Sexual Abuse Cases in India: Due-Process, Limitation of ‘in-camera’ Trial, and Birth of Judicial Managerialism
Discussant: Ozan Kamiloglu (LSBU)
12:20 – 13:30 Lunch Break (Catered)
13:30 – 14:20 Session 3
Judicial apprehension and the use of images
Speakers:
Peter Goodrich (Yeshiva University, New York), Vision in Decision – monochrome judgement
Madhavi Shukla (Independent Researcher), Lights, Camera, Justice: Governing Images and Bearing Witness to Law’s Unconscious
Discussant: TBC
14:20 – 15:50 Session 4
Live streaming courts and the new digital archive
Speakers:
Rahela Khorakiwala (BITS Law School, Mumbai), Ban on Cameras in Colonies: Post-Colonial Controls on Visual Imaging and Bans in India
Varsha Aithala (National Law School of India, Bengaluru), Digitalisation of Indian courts: Archiving judicial data
Kwan Cheng (City University of London), The Development and Reality of Live Trial Broadcasts in China
Discussant: TBC
15:30 – 15:45 Coffee break
15:30 – 17:15 Session 5
Open justice, cameras, and the courts
Speakers:
Ozan Kamiloglu (London South Bank University), Many lives of Open Justice in English Courts
Igor Szpotakowski (University of Newcastle), Metaverse in civil courts: Opportunities and threats for judicial system in England and Wales from the perspective of open justice
Andrii Koshman (University of Bristol), Judicial Accountability: Reflecting Historical Development and Projecting Future Trends
Discussant: Kanika Sharma (SOAS University of London)