¢Ã On June 26, 2018, the Judicial Policy and Research Institute (JPRI) successfully held the symposium on the “Era of Information and Videoconferencing in Judicial Proceedings” in cooperation with the Korean Bar Association and the Korea Association of the Law of Civil Procedure to respond to the era of information in an enterprising way.

¢Ã Trials via videoconferencing is a new form of trial procedure where parties participate in trials by using the videoconferencing program online without physically appearing before the court located afar from their places.

¢Ã Countries worldwide such as the UK and China are already using videoconference trials and virtual courts. Although the Korean judiciary has launched the system to examine witnesses via videoconferencing and remote trial system has been constructed in courts, such system is not often used. Moreover, the scope of allowing the trial via videoconferencing under the current law is in controversy.

¢Ã The symposium provided an opportunity to share the experience of the court in pilot project which conducted pretrial procedures using the videoconference trial system (demonstration of the videoconference trial) and to discuss futuristic online trials and smart courtrooms.