Virtual Criminal Justice and Good Governance during Covid-19

Abstract

Covid-19 demands that we embrace the ‘positivistic approach of good governance’.1 This claim presupposes three things. First, that we see ‘good governance’ as part of the legal system – this means identifying the principles of good governance, their development as legal norms, and ensuring the necessary enforcement of those norms.2 Second, that good governance is nothing but empty rhetoric if we do not take that last point seriously – the relevant principles must be enforceable as rights.3 Third, that Covid-19 has thrown our legal systems into very risky and unprecedented territory. Individual rights are, perhaps justifiably so, at immense risk. This is clearly evident in the domain of criminal justice. Of particular interest here is the mass roll-out of ‘virtual attendance’ at criminal hearings via video links (VLs). Why is this of particular interest? Unlike other emergency measures (such as the suspension of jury trials or the introduction of radical public order/health offences), there is evidence to suggest the widespread use of VLs had political momentum preCovid 19.4