Making justice more accessible

From the point of view of the Citizen, Justice is not always readily accessible. Either because it is a lengthy process, potentially expensive, sometimes unclear or simply scary, people will often avoid or withdraw from a judicial process, especially in those cases that involve relatively small amounts. This results in the giving up of a basic right, with the potential loss of rightful benefits. In this paper we briefly analyze the main aspects that impair access to Justice nowadays. We then move on to look at recent technological developments in the field of Online Dispute Resolution to argue that these can, in the near future, have a significant role in improving access to Justice. Specifically, we analyze the UMCourt Conflict Resolution Framework, developed by our research team, and address the different dimensions in which such tools contribute to make Justice more accessible, namely through better access to useful information, support in decision-making or more cost-effective processes.Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within projects FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028980 (PTDC/EEISII/1386/ 2012) and PEst-OE/EEI/UI0752/201

Investing in Justice: A Literature Review in Support of the Case for Improved Access

The focus of this report is return on investment (ROI) and social return on investment (SROI) research in justice. There is a growing access to justice crisis around the world. Notwithstanding the prevalence of legal problems in everyday life, people do not have adequate access to the justice information, resources and mechanisms that they need to navigate the complexities of law. This gap in access to justice negatively impacts everyone. It also comes with significant costs – to individuals and societies. Complicating this global crisis is a lack of understanding of the nature, extent, costs and potential solutions of and for the access to justice problem. In this report, we examine research on return on investment and social return on investment in justice, two particularly promising areas of study that offer insights on the monetary and non-monetary benefits to individuals, investors and the state of making justice more accessible

Book Review: Pakistan’s Experience with Formal Law: An Alien Justice: Osama Siddique, Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-63627-9, paperback, first published 2013, pp. xvii+469.

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Examining the Reporting Mechanism for Sexual Harassment at the Workplace : A Focus on Section 6 of the Kenyan Employment Act

Sexual harassment in the workplace refers to any unwanted sexual request or advances by employers or colleagues. It is prevalent in the Kenyan context. Despite this, many cases of sexual harassment go unreported. This article looks at the factors affecting the reluctance to report sexual harassment in relation to the structure of the reporting mechanism under the Kenyan Employment Act. It is suggested that there exists a nexus between these factors and the structure of the reporting mechanism. This article is informed by the dominance feminism theory which identifies dominance as the basis for sexual harassment. To improve reporting, this article recommends increasing reporting avenues by including a commission and promoting training of employees on sexual harassment. With the exception of case law and statute, much of the information gathered has been sourced from books, papers, case law and published journals

Report of the Court Processes Simplification Working Group

The public court process is of vital importance to Canada. It plays a central role in how citizens govern themselves and regulate their rights and relationships in modern democracies. For the system to be effective, it must operate in a way that is just, efficient and proportionate to the needs and resources of the citizens it is designed to serve. Further, the system must be accessible

Adapting Justice to Technology and Technology to Justice: A Coevolution Process to e-Justice in Cross-border Litigation

During the last decades, the EU has actively encouraged and pursued the digitalisation of European procedures at various levels (e.g. use of technology in court proceedings, dedicated online portals, digital handling of European procedures). In building an EU e-justice system to facilitate and support cross-border litigation, law and technology need to be properly assembled in a common system interconnecting national and European systems. This paper explores the complexity digitisation of cross-border procedures involves and the coevolution of the components on which such an e-justice system rely. In this process, the European uniform procedures – the European Order for Payment and the European Small Claims Procedure – have been used to test the possibilities of full digital handling of procedures as they can support the use of electronic communication means at various stages of the proceedings. Developing an EU e-justice system is not without problems as digitisation is a complex process that can facilitate as well as limit access to justice. The interaction between the requirements of law and technology has a major effect for the complexity the system needs to handle. The e-Justice Portal and the e-CODEX tests also reveal the difficulty of interaction between multiple legal and institutional frameworks as well as different national e-justice architectures. In this process of building an EU e-justice system, complexity and evolvability of law and technology have to be considered in order to allow the adaptation of the system over technical developments and legislative amendments. This analysis seeks to address the importance of these aspects in the architecture of a sustainable and reliable cross border e-justice system