International Criminal Courts are a guarantor that justice can be achieved for the most egregious crimes against humanity and that surviving victims from those crimes can live with the assurance that the perpetrators are held accountable for their actions. Evidence sits at the core of the judicial process, and the participants rely on it to be authentic, integer and untampered with to ensure the fairness of the proceedings. Without enforcing powers, these International Criminal Courts could rely extensively on evidence provided by other parties to build a strong case from inception to appeals stage. With the increased digitization, size and complexity of evidence, traditional methods of managing the chain of custody are becoming vulnerable to successful challenging of admissibility of evidence. Blockchain could be the answer for strengthening the Chain of Custody in evidence management and mitigate these identified threats, as this technology brings essential characteristics such as time-stamping, authentication, immutably and trust among independent parties. This paper conceives and designs a blockchain-based solution that maintains a tamper proof chain of custody and multilevel trust in evidence management applied to the International Criminal Court. The convergence of International Criminal Justice with Blockchain Technology is notably absent within existing academic discourse, and arguably in one of the most unstable and conflictual periods in human history, this paper offers a timely approach to deliver justice in a more effective and credible way.

错误:搜索内容不能为空,请输入英文关键词
错误:关键词超出字数限制,请精简
高级检索

Multiparty Trust Levels in Evidence Management: Ensuring Tamper-Proof Chain of Custody in Blockchain

  • Nuno Santos,
  • Joel Curado,
  • Joao C. Ferreira

摘要

International Criminal Courts are a guarantor that justice can be achieved for the most egregious crimes against humanity and that surviving victims from those crimes can live with the assurance that the perpetrators are held accountable for their actions. Evidence sits at the core of the judicial process, and the participants rely on it to be authentic, integer and untampered with to ensure the fairness of the proceedings. Without enforcing powers, these International Criminal Courts could rely extensively on evidence provided by other parties to build a strong case from inception to appeals stage. With the increased digitization, size and complexity of evidence, traditional methods of managing the chain of custody are becoming vulnerable to successful challenging of admissibility of evidence. Blockchain could be the answer for strengthening the Chain of Custody in evidence management and mitigate these identified threats, as this technology brings essential characteristics such as time-stamping, authentication, immutably and trust among independent parties. This paper conceives and designs a blockchain-based solution that maintains a tamper proof chain of custody and multilevel trust in evidence management applied to the International Criminal Court. The convergence of International Criminal Justice with Blockchain Technology is notably absent within existing academic discourse, and arguably in one of the most unstable and conflictual periods in human history, this paper offers a timely approach to deliver justice in a more effective and credible way.