| Keywords [eng] |
E-courts, Virtual hearings, Access to justice, Fair trial, Post-COVID-19 legal re-forms,Comparative legal study, User experience in online courts/elektroniniai teismai, virtualūs posėdžiai, teisė į teisingumą, teisingas teismas, teisinės reformos po COVID-19 pandemijos, lyginamoji teisinė studija, vartotojų patirtis inter-netiniuose teismuose. |
| Abstract [eng] |
Summary Tanvi Sharma Access to Justice in The Digital Age: The Effectiveness of E-courts and Virtual Hearings In this Master thesis, I am going to discuss the subject of this paper, which is titled Ac-cess to Justice in the Digital Age: The effectiveness of E-Courts and Virtual Hearings. The primary objective of the study is to investigate the extent in which digital technolo-gy has enhanced access to the justice system by people and the increasing of virtual courts in providing fair, efficient and inclusive justice. The paper is concerned with the increased utilization of digital courts, in particular, following the COVID-19 outbreak and assesses the advantages as well as the barrier of the change. Digital justice has been adopted in various legal systems particularly India and the European Union thus a com-parative approach is employed to comprehend how these nations have embraced digital justice. There are also other countries like the United States and portions of Asia whose practical experiences are taken to facilitate the analysis. The thesis starts with the definition of the term access to justice and its significance as a core value of humanity. On these points out the fact that traditional court systems usual-ly present barriers because it is time consuming in terms of long delays, expensive and geographical distance and complicated processes. The paper then identifies how the dig-ital technology was incorporated into the justice system to address some of these issue by e-filling, virtual hearings, online case management and electronics court records. The study reveals that e-courts and virtual hearings have changed live of many people positively. They have minimized time taken to file a case, hearings and made it cheaper to travel and litigate as well as making it easier to those who are living long distances be-fore the court locations. Digital courts also guaranteed the continuity of justice during the physical court closure in time of emergency, namely, the COVID-19 pandemic. These innovations were evident to enhance efficiency, convenience and openness in the court of justice. According to the finding it can be concluded in the thesis e-courts and virtual hearings have enhanced access to justice only to a little degree. The technology of digital cannot totally substitute traditional courts. Equality and human relations in all catego-ries of cases. Thus, the study is a strong indicator of the hybrid justice system, according to which physical courts and digital ones operate at the same time, General recommendations on how to reinforce digital justice are also contained in the thesis or it include here are some points: •Developing effective legal system on digital courts. •Minimize the digital divide by improving infrastructure and support by the general population. •Securing of cybersecurity and data protection. •Training judges and lawyers on a consistent basis and digitally. •Confidentiality of procedural fairness. •Continuously observing the effects of e-courts. The general finding of the study is that technology is supposed to serve as an aiding fac-tor towards justice, not as an alternative to conventional values of the judiciary. Digital courts can transform the justice systems and make it more accessible, more affordable, faster and more transparent. Provided that it is properly regulated and implemented in-clusively. Nevertheless, global justice over the digital sphere can as well bring forth new sources of difference and danger unless appropriate precautions are taken. In short, this thesis concludes that the future of justice is a digital-physically balanced justice system, where efficiency is balanced with fairness, human dignity and the rule of law. When used appropriately, taking equity, security and fairness into account e-courts and virtual hearings can produce justice that is more quick, fair and available to all. Technology should be a bridge to justice not a barrier. |
