At 3AM Friday (today) SLT (US Pacific) the Portuguese Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with the University of Aveiro and the Faculty of Law of the Lisbon New University will be launching an 'e-justice' center in Second Life. The ceremony is to be held in the Senate room of the University of Aveiro and streamed live into Second Life.

While the Second Life side of the proceedings will be bi-lingual (Portuguese and English) the video stream's audio component, alas, will be Portuguese only.

Through this initiative, the Ministry of Justice aims to promote the use of alternative means of dispute resolution as swift, informal and easy-to-use solutions via a channel accessible on a planetary scale, as well as emphasize the importance placed by the Portuguese government and the Presidency of the European Union on these resolution processes.

The initiative will also be an experiment into the use of methods of dispute resolution in an entirely informal and virtual manner, which could have future applications in real disputes.

E-justice Centre island was created specifically for this facility, and the building (inspired by the Torre de Belém in Lisbon) was designed and created as a futuristic interpretation by the University of Aveiro's Department of Communication and Art.

[Thanks, Gwyneth Llewlyn for the heads-up]