DigiRights Project Final Newsletter

Dear all,

This marks the final newsletter of the DigiRights project, which has now come to an end. While the project itself may be officially finished, the work we have begun continues—not least with the project’s forthcoming edited collection: A. Beazley, A. Mosna and M. Panzavolta (eds.), Digitalisation, Defence Rights and Criminal Proceedings (Routledge).

As we finalise this last project output—and look to the future—we would be remiss if we did not also draw attention to the work undertaken by the DigiRights partners in the past few months.

First, two articles have been published in the recent special issue of the European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. The first is a joint collaboration between the KU Leuven and Göttingen teams, co-authored by Lena Ertle, Anna Mosna, Peter Rackow and myself, that considers ‘The Audiovisual Interrogation of Witnesses in Belgium and Germany and its Fundamental Rights Implications’. The second is by the Luxembourg team, Silvia Allegrezza and Lorenzo Bernadini, and looks at ‘Digital Participation at Criminal Trials in Europe—Toward a Paradigm Shift?’. Both of these articles, as well as all other scientific publications from the DigiRights project, can be found here on the project website.

Each of the project teams has also recently produced a policy brief. Each of these briefs is written (where appropriate) in national languages, and each provides an overview of the current legislative framework(s) for the digital application of defence rights in criminal proceedings, the findings of the national study (where undertaken), and the (national) team’s proposed recommendations for future improvement and greater safeguarding of the defence rights studied.

The DigiRights project team has also developed guidelines for the digital application of the rights to interpretation, access to the case file, legal assistance, and to be present at trial. These guidelines, which were presented at different project dissemination events (including the project conference earlier this year) endeavour to contribute to the effective and coherent application of EU criminal law regarding the rights of suspects and accused persons in criminal proceedings. Additionally, they are a particularly innovative element of the project’s outputs, for these guidelines represent the first significant attempt to suggest common recommendations for the safeguarding of defence rights with the use of technology in criminal proceedings. The DigiRights Guidelines will be soon available on the website.

Finally, on behalf of the KU Leuven team, please allow me to thank all of those who have followed this project and contributed to its research or events; this extends, of course, to our diligent project partners, without whom the success of this project, and its outputs, would not have been possible. Thank you.

With all best wishes,

Ashlee, on behalf of the DigiRights Project Team.