Information and digital technologies in jury trial of criminal cases in Russia

Abstract

It is difficult to overestimate the role of the institution of jurors in criminal procedural law, since due to its existence the possibility of people's participation in the justice process is realized. The process of forming the jury bench and their direct participation in criminal cases in practice is possible with the use of various information technologies. In the rapidly changing socio-political situation in society, the participation of representatives of the people in administaring justice is impossible without modern information and digital technologies. The expansion of the scope of jury activities and extension of their competence to the categories of criminal cases under the jurisdiction of not only regional, but also district level, predetermined the study and analysis of problems arising in the formation of the jury panel and organization of their activities in the trial in the traditional and remote format as the purpose of the study. The following tasks are defined: to identify, with the help of information and digital technologies, the reasons for the low activity of the population in realization of the right to participate in justice administration; to determine the strategy for screening candidates and their subsequent preparation for participation in court session; to solve organizational problems of implementing new forms of this institution of criminal justice in the Russian Federation. An attempt has been made to update the scientific position regarding the process of formation and further activities of the jury panel in criminal proceedings based on the available digital and information capabilities. Implementation of the results of the work is possible both for practitioners of the judicial system and for researchers in the field of criminal procedure envolved with formation, development and improvement of the institution of jurors. It can be concluded that transformation of forms of criminal proceedings taking place in the modern world, emergence of new technologies, penetration of digitalization into all spheres of human life have significantly affected the genesis of popular representation in justice administration in criminal cases and become an integral part of it, requiring legal certainty.