ABSTRACT

Around the world, almost every aspect of people’s lives has been affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). We focused on one context that has received relatively little attention to date: the courtroom. Guided by established psychological findings and theories, we explored how the emergence of COVID-19 and proposed protective measures against the virus (i.e. face masks, physical distancing) could affect legal decision-making at trial. For the majority of the phenomena that we considered, the extant literature predicted negative or mixed effects. Because it appears likely that extralegal factors related to the pandemic will affect outcomes, the fairness of proceedings must be called into question. Overall, this work suggests that the reopening of the courts might be premature. It also highlights the importance of leveraging established psychological findings to address questions arising from unpredictable events when direct research is not yet available.

摘要

在世界各地，人们生活的几乎方方面面都受到了新型冠状病毒 (COVID-19) 的影响。我们专注于迄今为止相对较少受到关注的一个环境：法庭。在既定的心理学研究结果和理论的指导下，我们探讨了 COVID-19 的出现以及针对病毒提出的保护措施（即口罩、身体距离）如何影响审判中的法律决策。对于我们考虑的大多数现象，现存的文献预测了负面或混合的影响。由于与大流行相关的法外因素似乎很可能会影响结果，因此必须质疑诉讼程序的公平性。总体而言，这项工作表明重新开放法院可能为时过早。