As is known, at present, states are gradually moving to the digital age of development. In this regard, the provision of independence, impartiality and fairness of the courts in this period is considered one of the pressing issues and requires the improvement of digital technologies in the judicial system.
Ensuring the independence, fairness and impartiality of the court in the digital age plays significant role within the framework of the ongoing reforms in Uzbekistan. In this regard, one of the main directions of the the National Action Strategy on Five Priority Development Areas in 2017-2021 is ensuring the true independence of the judiciary, enhancing the prestige of the judiciary, democratization and improvement of the judicial system, including the introduction of modern information and communication technologies into the activities of courts.
Furthermore, the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan
“On measures to ensure true independence of judges and increase the effectiveness of prevention of corruption in the judiciary” (December 7, 2020, No. DP–6127) sets out two important tasks:
developing and implementing an electronic program that facilitates the assessment of professional merit in the psychological portrait of candidates and judges for the position of a judge;
the development and implementation of specific criteria that ensure an open and transparent assessment of the effectiveness of judicial activity through electronic rating.
In order to ensure the independence, fairness and impartiality of the judiciary in the digital age, it is necessary to introduce and improve modern information and communication technologies into the activities of the courts.
Taking into account the above, one of the sessions of the II International Legal Forum “Tashkent Law Spring” is devoted to the issues of ensuring the independence, fairness and impartiality of the judiciary in the digital age. Within the framework of the session, it is planned to discuss such topical issues as:
– the importance of ensuring independence, fairness and impartiality of the judiciary in the digital age
– improvement of legislation on the use of modern information technologies in judicial proceedings;
– mechanisms for open and transparent assessment of the work of judges through electronic rating;
– modern means of ensuring the transparency of information in the activities of the courts in the digital age;
– modern mechanisms to ensure universal access to court information services.
The session will be attended by representatives of foreign organizations with high experience in the above-mentioned issues.
For example, the speakers of this session will be the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers – Diego Garcia-Sayan, the head of the Department of Safety of Journalists and Freedom of Speech of UNESCO– Guilherme Canela de Souza Godoy, the former director of the Federal Judicial Center, the director of the Judicial Institute of the University of California at Berkeley – Judge Jeremy D. Vogel. Experts such as Stephen Irwin, a British judge and lawyer, Damian Florjancic, President of the Supreme Court of Slovenia, and Klara Lahood Magani, an expert on institutional reform and the public sector at the World Bank Group, will also be present.
