Early February 2018, the Department of European and Comparative Procedural Law of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg hosted the conference “Open Justice”, organised in cooperation with Saarland University.
The Conference brought together judges and representatives of the highest European and national courts, academics, legal practitioners, and legal journalists. It provided them with a platform to explore a variety of issues pertaining to the problems of open justice and to re-examine the traditional ideas of the principle in light of modern day challenges – especially the growing use of information technologies.
While the first day of the Conference focused on the right to a public hearing and public access to a hearing, the second day was devoted to the transparency of the selection and appointment of judges; the expanding landscape of private dispute resolution; and the phenomenon of vanishing trials. The Conference concluded with a roundtable on the topic of the communication of justice between the courts, the media, and the public.
