Obiter is intrigued by revelations that viewing booths are to be installed on court premises to allow interested parties to view proceedings in our brave new digital courts. The idea, apparently, is to replicate the current experience of open justice without taking the risk of putting proceedings out on the great worldwide web. But how will it work?

The Ministry of Justice proposal for ‘booths in court buildings’ conjurs up visions of What the Butler Saw machines, or those seedy ‘private cinemas’ you used to find down alleys in Soho (Obiter is told). More seriously, we suspect that the scheme will go the way of all government attempts to ringfence the internet.

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