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  5. Legal liability for contempt of court in the digital era

Almanac of law. Issue 16 (2025), pages 243–247.

DOI: 10.33663/2524-017X-2025-16-243-247

Liashenko R. D., Vasylenko L. P.
Legal liability for contempt of court in the digital era

The article examines the problematic issues of legal liability for contempt of court in the context of digitalization of legal proceedings.

The author analyzes the provisions of the national legislation of Ukraine regulating legal liability for contempt of court, the draft law № 11387 on strengthening liability for contempt of court and abuse of procedural rights, and the case law of national courts and the ECHR.

Contempt of court is the unlawful behavior of a legal entity that goes beyond the limits of what is permissible both during court hearings and outside the court. In the digital era, the list of potential manifestations of contempt of court has expanded significantly: from deliberate creation of technical obstacles (disconnection of communication, background noise) to demonstrative contempt (indecent appearance in front of the camera, unauthorized actions during an online hearing).

An analysis of the domestic case law of Ukraine shows that most manifestations of contempt of court, including those related to the use of digital technologies, currently remain without a proper response. Domestic courts are rather cautious in applying sanctions for contempt of court, and bring to administrative liability only gross procedural violations.

Given the current trends of digitalization, the legislator should amend the legislation and establish administrative liability for contempt of court related to the use of digital technologies. It is proposed to amend Article 185-3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses by supplementing it with the following provisions: «Committing actions that demonstrate a clear contempt of court using digital technologies, including submission of documents or evidence generated by AI without proper legal verification, demonstration of contempt for the court or participants to the proceedings during court hearings in the format of video conferencing, shall be punishable by a fine of fifty to one hundred and fifty tax-free minimum incomes».

Key words: contempt of court, digitalization of legal proceedings, legal liability, artificial intelligence, legal proceedings, attorney.

 

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