Digital Evidence in Criminal Proceedings

Is digital evidence reliable? Does digital forensics in criminal investigations uphold to fair trial principles and forensics standards? What is the impact of the increased use of science and technology in the investigation on the rights of suspects, accused, and defendants?

In this course Radina (Adi) Stoykova will provide theoretical and practical knowledge on the most common digital evidence types, the digital forensics methods and tools for their handling, and best practices to report, cross-examine, and challenge such evidence in criminal proceedings. It gives insights from interdisciplinary research on:

• The right to a fair trial and challenges for its transposition to digital investigations
• What is digital forensic and what are the main processes and standards followed to establish accuracy, integrity, and reliability of digital evidence
• Challenges with digital evidence in practice: a case study of the Encrochat investigation
• Common errors and misunderstandings in digital evidence: case studies on the reliability of digital evidence in Norwegian serious crime investigations
• A practical guide on how to access the reliability of digital evidence and digital forensics reports

Also speaking in this course will be prof. Jeanne Mifsud Bonnici en dr. Hylke Jellema. Prof. Mifsud Bonnici will present a comparative analysis of the approach to digital evidence regulation in different EU member states, while dr. Jellema will discuss some common misconceptions and philosophical aspects about reasoning and digital evidence.

The course is suitable for judges, law enforcement, prosecutors, and digital forensics examiners who are interested in intersection issues between criminal procedure, digital forensics, and evidence law.

Over de docenten

Radina (Adi) Stoykova holds a dual PhD in law and information security from University of Groningen and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and an LL.M in Technology law from Leibniz University Hannover. She is specializing in reliability of digital evidence, digital forensics standardization, and the impact of new technology on the criminal justice system. Adi was involved in research projects in the Norwegian police, and worked with digital forensics teams in Norway, Italy, and the Netherlands. She has practical expertise with digital evidence from computers, social media, clouds, and AI-generated evidence and the way they are acquired, examined, and reported for criminal proceedings.

Prof. Jeanne Mifsud Bonnici was awarded a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship at the University of Groningen in 2009 and was appointed a full Professor at the same university in 2015. She holds the Chair in European Technology Law and Human Rights at the Department of European and Economic Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen. Since 2010, she co-leads the STeP Research Group.

Mr. dr. Hylke Jellema is an assistant professor of criminal law at Utrecht University and a postdoctoral researcher in the Preventing Miscarriages of Justice project at the University of Groningen. This project aims to develop a course for judges on how to prevent reasoning fallacies. Generally, his research focuses on reasoning rationally with and about legal evidence.

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