Visioconférence, New public management et réforme organisationnelle dans la justice

International audienceVideoconference technology allows interactions between citizens and their governments to bemanaged without systematic co-presence. It is a relatively discrete innovation, which has beenintroduced into bureaucracies all over the world, but still remains underanalyzed and as aconsequence, underestimated in terms of its impact. This article analyzes the introduction andinstitutionalization of remote hearings in French courtrooms to shed light on the emergence ofvideoconferencing technology as a new way of organizing trials, changing the format by whichjustice is carried out. The article reviews the existing literature, outlines the theoretical frameworkand methodology, and then presents the results, primarily concerning the history of the introductionof videoconferencing in French jurisdictions. Four main points of discussion emerge: the way inwhich videoconferencing is designed and the reasons put forward to justify its suitability in thejudicial sector; its relationship with the efficiency programs underway in the justice system as partof wider New Public Management reform; the tensions and friction points between a pragmaticapproach to innovation and the traditional judicial approach; and finally the case of personalappearance as an example of adjustments operated on judiciary standards by the introduction ofvideoconferencing. We close by considering videoconferencing as an instrument of public action,that is, a technological tool that has progressively realized a public policy objective, in this casereducing the need to escort detained personnel