The Max Planck Institute Luxembourg is organising a conference on “Open Justice” taking place on its premises (4 Rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721 Luxembourg-Kirchberg) on 1-2 February 2018.

Organised in cooperation with Saarland University, the Open Justice conference intends to contribute to the ongoing discussion about open justice in a constructive manner, by re-examining the traditional ideas of the principle of the public hearing in light of modern day challenges (especially the growing use of information technologies). If public awareness of what happens in courts serves to reinforce public confidence in the administration of justice, the question posed today is how best to achieve increased awareness whilst, at the same time, paying heed to the values of integrity and fairness of the process.

Over the two days of the conference, the participants will explore a variety of issues pertaining to the problematics of open justice, such as: the scope and content of the right to a public hearing as enshrined in various constitutional and supra-national instruments; the organisation of public oral hearings in civil and criminal proceedings and the relevant contemporary challenges of the information society; the level of transparency in the processes of appointing and selecting judges, as well as the phenomenon of vanishing trials and the privatisation of justice in the form or arbitration and ADR mechanisms.

The conference will be closed by a roundtable discussion on the ways and the extent to which justice should be communicated to society. Among others, matters such as televising and broadcasting of judicial proceedings and the relationship between the judiciary and journalists shall be reflected on.

The conference will bring together judges of European and national courts, academics, legal practitioners and legal journalists and provide them with a platform on which to express their understanding of the principle of open justice today, and exchange their views on how to tackle the aforementioned challenges. Given that there are different ways in which courts deal with these challenges in practice, and that rules vary from one jurisdiction to another in regulating the application of the open justice principle, it is hoped that this comparative element to the conference will add to the quality of discussion in this field.

The event will involve a number of guest speakers:

Academics from prominent law schools, including:

- Prof. Ruth Herz, a former judge who has experience both on and behind cameras. With the aim to enhance the relationship between law and the media, she used to play the role of a judge in one of Germany’s most popular TV shows broadcast by RTL “Das Jugendgericht” (The Youth Court).
- Prof. Alberto Alemanno, founder of the blog “The Good Lobby”, a civic start-up which pursues public interest in the EU and strives for more transparency in the selection process of judges at the CJEU in particular.

Judges/representatives of the highest European courts, and the supreme courts of Luxembourg and Germany:

- Advocates General Szpunar and Bobek from the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Luxembourg court)
- Vice-President Nussberger and Judge O’Leary from the European Court of Human Rights (the Strasbourg court)
- President Wiwinius of the Supreme Court of Justice of Luxembourg
- Vice-President Kirchhof and Judge Paulus from the German Federal Constitutional Court

The programme is available on www.mpi.lu