Former High Court judge Sir Hugh Laddie called this week for courts in England and Wales to be opened to the public using the web.


Giving the Society for Computers and Law's annual lecture in London, he said courts should adopt Internet technologies such as web-based voice and video calling to allow parties and the general public to see inside courts.



'We need a modern legal system for a modern world,' said Sir Hugh. 'If you're a big company [in litigation], does that mean that all your executives have to trot up to London, if it's in the High Court or the Court of Appeal? It doesn't make sense.' The same issue applies to litigation conducted in the UK by foreign companies, he said.



High technology is not 'done well' in English courts, which is 'a real hindrance to the administration of justice', Sir Hugh added. Showing trials online would expose bad practice, as 'the beneficiaries of a lack of publicity tend to be people who ought to be exposed'.



Constitutional affairs minister Bridget Prentice told the House of Commons in November last year that Lord Falconer 'has been considering' court broadcasting proposals since June 2005.



Rupert White