Virtual courts and putting 'summary' back into 'summary justice' : merely brief, or unjust?

The use of videolinks in courts is often heralded as the beginnings of so-called 'virtual' courts, as evident in a recent pilot undertaken in the United Kingdom. While the option to participate in courtroom hearings from remote locations via videolink has been available in many countries for over two decades, the overall effects of this change in procedure on the experience of justice remains relatively unknown. This chapter will argue that existing practices of participating in court processes from a remote location risk proceedings being perceived as procedurally unjust as fundamental aspects of the judicial process are potentially undermined by current 'virtual'- or what might more aptly be termed 'distributed' -courts