Standards for the Remote Conduct of a Trial

Abstract

The commentary concerns the statement of the Supreme Court which is one of the first attempts to define and unify standards for the remote conduct of a trial to ensure their compliance with procedural guarantees and rules. Firstly, the Supreme Court stated that the Act does not exclude a priori any categories of cases in which, if the statutory conditions are met, a hearing could not be conducted remotely. Secondly, the condition for conducting a trial remotely is to ensure the proper and effective exercise of the accused’s right of defence, and the Act does not and cannot impose any restrictions on this right. The commentary refers to the above theses, finding them generally accurate, and deepens the argumentation in support of them. An attempt is also made to define the procedural standards for conducting a hearing remotely by reference to the system of procedural guarantees and procedural rules.