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The court held its sessions using Zoom

09.04.2020
Judiciary /
Judiciary and Status of Judges

Event

On April 8, the Seventh Administrative Court of Appeal announced that it had two videoconference sessions outside the court premises, which were organized using ZOOM application. This is the first report of holding a court session in Ukraine with the use of publicly available video conferencing program.

CPLR Assessment

CPLR experts welcome the introduction of remote case consideration practices through publicly available applications. This approach is becoming popular in many countries in the face of restrictive measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, other countries that have moved to remote court procedures due to quarantine measures ensure public hearings, as this is an integral part of the right to a fair trial.

Unfortunately, there is no announcement on the web site / FB page / Youtube channel of the Court of Appeal or the portal "Judiciary of Ukraine" about the broadcasting of these sessions, there is no information about the broadcasting on the Internet.

As a general rule, court consideration procedure is open. A court session must be announced and, if all parties participate in the videoconference regime, it must be broadcast on the Internet. Violation of the principle of publicity of trial is inadmissible and greatly undermines the lawfulness of the decision in the case.

When most court procedures are forced to switch to videoconference regime, a solution may be to broadcast them on Youtube. Such broadcasting was actively exercised yet before the quarantine on the webpage of “Judiciary of Ukraine”. There is a technical possibility of broadcasting a Zoom video conference on Youtube.