Legal Commentary

Cambodians believe that fierce rain storms are the voices of the dead. So earlier this year, when water pounded the terra-cotta roof of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, everyone became very tense. Static shreiked from headsets and monitors, and then they went silent.

Just another challenge faced by the technology team supporting the trial of Kaing Guek Eav (aka Comrade Duch), one of the Khmer Rouge leaders who is being prosecuted for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions -- including personally overseeing the torture and execution of more than 14,000 prisoners during the reign of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.

In December's Technology on Trial, Claire Duffett describes how the technologists, with a tiny budget, overcame tremendous obstacles. They ran fiber optic cable from the courthouse 15 miles to central Phnom Penh; established real-time translation into three languages; and even installed cloth screens on the roof to soften the voices of rain.

And I was very happy to learn that the judges of the 2009 Law Technology News Awards selected the trial team as the recipient of the "Most Innovative Use of Technology in a Trial Award," which will be presented on February 1, at our gala reception during LegalTech New York.

Photo: Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch. Photo by John Vink