(RE)INVENTING THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE

from courthouse buildings to the metaverse

Abstract

Court buildings are defined as symbolic and ritualistic settings through which people experience judicial authority. With the eruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, access to physical spaces of courts was severely limited, while an increase in the use of digital and remote working tools came to take place. The use and/or development of digital technologies has thus been marking the daily life of the judiciary in many countries.

It is, however, important to reflect upon the consequences of digital transformation underway, especially when justice is already taking place in the metaverse (i.e., experiences in Brazil and Colombia), raising pertinent questions: Will we still need physical courts? For what purpose, in what forms, and to whom (type of users)? Our questions are focusing the balance between digital justice and citizenship.

With this article, we intend to reflect on the future of the physical courthouse, framing it within the Portuguese context. The analysis benefits from previous research, including from a survey applied in 2022 to Portuguese judges, assessing their views regarding the use of digital technologies. Their perceptions are crucial to understand the technological transformations and its impacts on the future of the physical courthouses and justice itself.