The impact of “digital justice” on the role of the prosecutor

The introduction of modern tools in civil proceedings, providing remote presence and realization of all procedural rights and obligations, suggests that the traditional form of participation of the prosecutor in civil proceedings is undergoing transformation. One of the key technologies that provide the most advanced possibility of participation in the process of proceedings in civil cases is web-conferencing or online meeting. A notable feature of this technology is the ability to participate in a court hearing “in click accessibility” from the comfort of one’s own home. The highlighted characteristics of this technology suggest that there are limited grounds for the prosecutor to apply to the court in defense of citizens and then participate in the court session. Wide opportunities for increasing the publicity and accessibility of justice with the use of the technology under consideration may have a downside, which should be outlined and the problematic points necessary to elaborate the possibility of prosecutor’s participation in civil proceedings in the ongoing and actively developing digitalization. The study aims to identify the nature and direction of the impact of online court technology on the role of the prosecutor applying to the court in defense of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens. A key feature of this study is the application of the inductive method, which makes it possible to abstract from other information technologies used in the field of civil procedure. On the contrary, emphasis is placed on a specific technology in order to identify new opportunities and risks offered by the challenges of the new digital reality. In addition, the study used the formal-legal method, which manifested itself in the analysis of the relevant normative regulation, the logical method for the presentation and formation of the results of the conducted analysis. The following conclusions were made based on the results of the analysis: 1) web-conference (online hearing) has a significant impact on the principles of publicity, accessibility and equality; 2) web-conference (online hearing) allows the most sensitive segments of the population to remotely participate in a court hearing, controlling the quality of legal assistance provided by the prosecutor; 3) the optional nature of the use of web-conference (online hearing) does not justify the hypothesis of reducing the categories of citizens in defense of whose interests the prosecutor can appeal to the court; 4) the use of web conferencing (online sessions) increases the publicity of the activities of the prosecutor’s office due to the control by the material plaintiff over the course of the proceedings and the quality of legal assistance.

1. Abdulselimova, A. R., & Kupriyanova, M. Y. (2021). Primenenie videokonferencsvyazi v grazhdanskom processe [Application of videoconferencing in civil proceedings]. In A. A. Inyushkin (Ed.), Aktual’nye voprosy sovremennoj nauki [Topical issues of modern science] (pp. 7–11).

2. Afanas’ev, S. F. (2021). K voprosu o primenenii distancionnyh tekhnologij po grazhdanskim i administrativnym delam v kontekste principov sostyazatel’nosti i ravnopraviya storon [On the use of distance technologies in civil and administrative cases in the context of the principles of adversarial proceedings and equality of arms]. Pravovaya Politika i Pravovaya Zhizn’ [Legal Policy and Legal Life], 1, 141–148.

3. Bentham, J. (1860). O sudoustroystve [On the judicial system]. Tipografiya Pravitel’stvuyushchego Senata [Governing Senate Printing House].

4. Borokhova, N. E. (2021). K voprosu o vozmozhnosti ispol’zovaniya otdel’nyh vidov cifrovyh tekhnologij v ugolovnom sudoproizvodstve [On the possibility of using certain types of digital technologies in criminal proceedings]. Vestnik Yuzhno-Ural’skogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. Seriya: Pravo [Bulletin of South Ural State University. Series “Law”], 21(2), 7–12. https://doi.org/10.14529/law210201

5. Branovickij, K. L. (2019). Sootnoshenie ponyatij kachestvo i cifrovizaciya pravosudiya [Relationship between the concepts of quality and digitalisation of justice]. Arbitrazhnyj i Grazhdanskij Process [Arbitrazh and Civil Procedure], 7, 3–7.

6. Chaduteau, O. (2018). Panorama des legaltechs [Overview of legaltechs]. Enjeux Numériques [Digital Issues], 3, 77–80.

7. De Marcellis-Warin, N., & Warin, T. (2017). Entre possibilités et risques: À la recherche d’un nouvel équilibre [Between opportunities and risks: in search of a new balance]. Gestion [Management], 42(1), 72–75. https://doi.org/10.3917/riges.421.0072

8. Dolzhenko, N. I., Pishchulina, A. S., & Chu, K. C. (2022). Problemy i perspektivy vnedreniya tehnologij iskusstvennogo intellekta v sudebnuyu deyatel’nost’ [Problems and prospects of introducing artificial intelligence technologies in judicial activities]. In Aktual’nye problemy gosudarstvenno-pravovyh preobrazovanij v Rossii: Istoriya I sovremennost’ [Topical problems of state-legal transformations in Russia: History and modernity] (pp. 207–209).

9. Épineuse, H., & Garapon, A. (2018). Les défis d’une justice à l’ère numérique de « stade 3 » [The challenges of ‘stage 3’ justice in the digital age]. Enjeux Numériques, 3, 16–19.

10. Ergashev, E. R. (2023). Prokurorskij nadzor v Rossijskoj Federacii [Prosecutor’s control in the Russian Federation] (2nd ed.). Yurait.

11. Gaymaleeva, A. T. (2020). Cifrovizaciya sudebnoj sistemy: Analiz tendencij razvitiya processual’nogo zakonodatel’stva [Digitalization of the judicial system: Analysis of trends in the development of procedural legislation]. The Rule-of-Law State: Theory and Practice, 16(4-2), 28–39. https://doi.org/10.33184/pravgos-2020.4.21

12. Gelieva, I. N. (2021). O nekotoryh voprosah primeneniya videokonferenc-svyazi v deyatel’nosti sudov obshchej yurisdikcii [On some issues of application of video conference communications in the activities of courts of general jurisdiction]. In Pravovoj Vzglyad: Sbornik Statej Ii Mezhdunarodnoj Nauchno-Prakticheskoj Konferencii [Legal View: Collection of Articles of the II International Scientific and Practical Conference] (pp. 105–108). Nauka i Prosveshchenie [Science and Enlightenment].

13. Kashanin, A. V., Kozyreva, A. B., Kurnosova, N. A., & Malov, D. V. (2020). Informacionnye tekhnologii v pravosudii: Sostoyanie i perspektivy. Rossiya i mir. Analiticheskij doklad [Information Technologies in Justice: Status and Prospects. Russia and the World. Analytical report] (p. 81). Centr razvitiya sovremennogo prava [Centre for the Development of Modern Law]. https://ilr.hse.ru/data/2020/07/14/1597449494/%D0%98%D0%BD%D1%84%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B5%20%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%85%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B8%D0%B8%20%D0%B2%20%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%83%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%B8.pdf

14. Khabriyeva, T. (2018). Pravo pered vyzovami cifrovoj real’nosti [Law facing the challenges of digital reality]. Journal of Russian Law, 6(9), 5–16. https://doi.org/10.12737/art_2018_9_1

15. Lebedev, Z. S. (2020). Distancionnoe vzaimodejstvie s sudebnymi organami v usloviyah pandemii: Vozmozhnosti i perspektivy [Remote interaction with the judiciary in a pandemic: Opportunities and prospects]. Yuridicheskij Vestnik Samarskogo Universiteta [Legal Bulletin of Samara University], 6(3), 154–160. https://doi.org/10.18287/2542-047X-2020-6-3-154-160

16. Mironova, Y. V. (2021). Realizaciya principov grazhdanskogo processual’nogo prava pri ispol’zovanii sistem videokonferenc-svyazi [Implementation of the principles of civil procedure law when using videoconferencing systems] [Ph.D. Thesis]. Saratov State Law Academy.

17. Petrishin, A. P. (2021). Vliyanie cifrovyh tekhnologij na realizaciyu principa glasnosti pravosudiya [Impact of digital technologies on the implementation of the principle of transparency of justice]. Obrazovanie i Pravo [Education and Law], 10, 209–213. https://doi.org/10.24412/2076-1503-2021-10-209-213

18. Shakir’yanov, M. M., & Gavrilov, M. A. (2019). K voprosu o dostupe grazhdan k pravosudiyu s ispol’zovaniem gosudarstvennoj avtomatizirovannoj sistemy pravovoj statistiki [On the issue of citizens’ access to justice using the state automated system of legal statistics]. In Realizaciya Koncepcii cifrovoj transformacii organov i organizacij prokuratury v sovremennyh usloviyah [Implementation of the Concept of Digital Transformation of Prosecutor’s Offices and Organisations in Modern Conditions] (pp. 34–38). The University of the Prosecutor Office of the Russian Federation Publishing House.

19. Solovieva, T. V. (2021). Glasnost’ sudebnogo razbiratel’stva v usloviyah pandemii [Publicity of the trial in the context of a pandemic]. Saratov State Law Academy Bulletin, 6, 152–156. https://doi.org/10.24412/2227-7315-2021-6-152-156

20. Tabolina, K. A. (2019). K voprosu o sozdanii edinoj mezhvedomstvennoj cifrovoj onlajn-platformy dlya raboty s edinym elektronnym delom [Towards the creation of a unified interagency digital online platform for working with a single electronic case]. In Realizaciya Koncepcii cifrovoj transformacii organov i organizacij prokuratury v sovremennyh usloviyah [Implementation of the Concept of Digital Transformation of Prosecutor’s Offices and Organisations in Modern Conditions] (pp. 34–38). The University of the Prosecutor Office of the Russian Federation Publishing House.

21. Talapina, E. V. (2018). Pravo i cifrovizaciya: Novye vyzovy i perspektivy [Law and digitalisation: New challenges and perspectives]. Zhurnal Rossijskogo Prava [Journal of Russian Law], 2, 5–17. https://doi.org/10.12737/art_2018_2_1

22. Vasilenko, V. O. (2021). Problemy primeneniya informacionnyh tekhnologij v sudebnoj deyatel’nosti v svyazi s ugrozoj rasprostraneniya novoj koronavirusnoj infekcii COVID-19 [Challenges in the use of information technology in judicial activities in connection with the threat of a new coronavirus infection COVID-19]. Yuridicheskaya Nauka [Legal Science], 9, 86–90.

23. Vasilieva, A. A. (2020). Nekotorye voprosy primeneniya videokonferenc-svyazi I veb-konferencii v grazhdanskom processe [Some issues of video conference and web conference application in the civil process]. Voprosy Rossijskoj Yusticii [Questions of Russian Justice], 8, 536–547.