The
Ad Hoc Committee on Science & Technology was created in the fall of last
year to address the impact of emerging technologies and new science on
criminal justice. The criminal
justice community learns too little too late about technology and science.
We repeatedly find ourselves staring at a near vertical-learning curve
before we are even aware there is a curve to learn.
No matter how inspired,
intelligent or diligent lawyers and judges may be in cases involving new
scientific and technological issues, trials are being decided, rulings made,
and precedents set within a very narrow understanding of the intended and
unintended consequences such decisions will bring. We are unprepared to litigate the future, whether it starts next
century or next week.
The
Forensic Future
In recent years, our
first encounter with criminal justice issues raised by new technology has
often occurred only when we are slapped in the face with them at trial. If we are going to overcome the frustration that comes with being
overtaken by the pace of change, we have to innovate a new way for our
membership to become knowledgeable about the science and technology just over
the horizon, while it is still over that horizon, and not in our laps. What we need most of all is time to see the future coming.
The way to buy time is
to become better students of the consequences of technological innovation and
scientific progress. Like the jet
pilot who must be reacting a mile ahead of the jet's flight path in order to
guide the plane, the criminal justice community needs to develop an early
warning system to anticipate what future technologies and scientific research
will confront criminal law.
We need time to analyze
the consequences of radical technological change before it is upon us. To do that, lawyers have to filter ideas about the future through the
best minds we can persuade to consider these questions. Only by anticipating technological and scientific developments, only by
becoming "forensic futurists," can the criminal justice community
prepare for the long-range consequences of the policies and precedents new
science and technology will demand of us.
Our margin for error is
very narrow. If, for example, we
overshoot the proper reach of government surveillance in a digital world and
sanction an unlimited exploitation of these advancing technological
capabilities, our society will fall victim to a well-intended but relentlessly
totalitarian technology, whose control over the people would know no bounds.
On the other hand, if
we underestimate the potential threat to personal privacy and property
inherent in the criminal exploitation of advanced technology, we will find
ourselves at the mercy of those who are both ruthless and technologically
adept.
Having long ago pulled
this genie from its bottle, it would be wise for us to reflect more carefully
on our choices before we wish the wrong future on ourselves, and find in it
our worst nightmares. Without a
better understanding of the social, economic, and constitutional consequences
of advancing technology, our criminal law could easily lose its good sense in
so much great science.
An
Open Forum
Our basic plan for the
Science and Technology Committee is a simple one: to create an open forum for the criminal justice community and science
and technology experts who want to examine science and technology policy.
Our main focus will be
successfully forecasting technological and scientific advancements, and
anticipating how the criminal law might cope as those technological
innovations and scientific discoveries come into the mainstream of our justice
system. Integral to that process
is gaining a working knowledge of how the system presently is handling
technological change and scientific progress at both the judicial and
legislative levels.
These goals require
active participation by, and the open exchange of information between,
professionals who might very well face each other as adversaries in court.
The idealistic premise that we will rely on is that we all serve
justice; the more informed we all become, the more alert we will be to the
risks of short-range thinking and mistakes of judgment, whether those
infirmities are discovered of our courtroom adversary's position or our own.
Using only professional
gatherings and print publication to foster this dialogue would prove too slow
and unresponsive a way to make progress in the face of rapid and diverse
developments in the field. There
is simply more talking and more thinking to be done on this subject than
periodic committee meetings would permit.
We have to be able to
employ the benefits of connectivity and electronic networking of online
resources to provide a day-and-night, year-round clearinghouse for comment and
criticism by and between interested participants, who might otherwise have no
opportunity to exchange ideas.
Engaging in this
dialogue by means of an electronic forum that amounts to a cross between a
town meeting and a think tank, we can create a woven web of ideas and
information that will, over time, become an important body of knowledge, and a
learning resource for all who want to be well informed about what is to come.
Working
Groups Online
Study of particular
scientific and technological areas will be organized around the idea of
"working groups" made up of self-selecting participants, whose only
obligation is to contribute something to the commonwealth of information being
built online. Each "working
group" will have a core of expert lawyers, criminal justice
professionals, and scientific and technological experts who will be invited to
comment on future developments and their possible impact on criminal justice.
A group moderator will
post questions and comments from committee members to the online area assigned
to each working group. We will
feature online file exchange capabilities that will allow us to upload and
download written materials, including articles whose authors submit them for
electronic distribution. Current
developments in criminal law and governmental policy will also be briefed,
analyzed and, no doubt, criticized.
Several working groups
are already forming. There are no
limits on how many members may join or how many groups may exist, other than
that the groups many not cover the same topics. Ideas for new groups and recommendations for who should chair and
moderate them are always welcome.
Membership is not
limited to "experts" alone. All
are welcome in this community, whether they come to speak or to listen.
These are the working
groups that are already active (or soon will be) and the subject matters they
embrace:
Forensic life
science: all
life science forensics from DNA to brain waves, and everything based in human
biology that is to be found inbetween.
Applied
linguistics and voice sciences: discourse
analysis and psycholinguistics; voice recognition, identification, and
synthesis; and all other speech- and communication-related disciplines.
Observational
surveillance: hi-tech
observational methods for signals and imaging surveillance, such as infrared
and digital imaging from aerial and orbital platforms, as they come into play
in law enforcement.
Communications
surveillance: wiretap
and undercover technology for recording conversations, including digital
electronic surveillance under the new digital telephony legislation.
Computing and
telecommunications: crimes
by and through computers, particularly those being defined by global
telecomputing and digital telephony and computer networks.
Computing &
commerce: digital
signatures, cryptography, and computer crimes in business and commercial
settings.
Court
technology: technology
applied at trial, whether by litigators or courts, including computer
animation, virtual reality, real-time transcription, digital A/V, and
digitized exhibits.
Getting
Involved
Tell us what working
groups you want to join, or about a group that you are interested in starting.
We will contact you with the e-mail addresses of other similarly
interested participants and put you on our e-mail master address list for all
news and committee developments.If
you haven't acquired an electronic mail address and online service provider,
it's time to do so. The costs are
minimal, and the benefits exponential.
Quite apart from being
technologically trendy, there are some truly practical benefits to an
electronic forum that anyone who has become a regular participant on the
Internet or other online resources has already experienced.
There is an acceleration of insights, an intellectual immediacy with
current events made possible by this medium that changes your intellectual and
professional bearings.
Those who use the
global reach of the electronic networks find a breadth of intellectual
engagement that is akin to a virtual college.
The influence of the written word and the ideas it conveys has never
been more powerful, more purposeful, or more welcome than it is in this
medium.
All
Are Welcome
We hope the Ad Hoc
Committee on Science and Technology can acquire some of the same attributes as
the global electronic community: spontaneity,
creativity, and accessibility. We
feel that the quality of the educational forum we want to provide will be best
measured by how many contribute, not by the qualifications of a few.
We think we will see more of the future by having measured it from
every point of view.
Please do not assume
that our efforts will occur only in the ether of cyberspace.
We expect to have non-virtual, perhaps even visceral, face-to-face
events at future ABA gatherings. Another
committee endeavor will be to sponsor CLE seminars and regional programs that
will bring contemporary and sometimes controversial viewpoints on science and
technology issues to the membership. Print
and electronic publishing opportunities will also be pursued, in hopes of
bringing the best of the ideas we generate to everyone with an interest in
hearing about them.
Above all, we hope to
provide a service to the membership of the Criminal Justice Section and the
ABA as a whole, offering a greater appreciation for the occasion for justice
and the occasion for injustice that awaits us in each scientific discovery and
emerging technology.
