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This
page is about Microjustice Initiative research projects, as well as
research projects that have been conducted by Microjustice's initial
partners.
Research projects:
» Access to
justice, legal services: Microjustice
This essay introduces the concept of Microjustice as an approach to
tackle the problem of access to justice for those with limited
resources. It explores how the market for justice works and why justice
does not reach the poor. Legal systems are surrounded by knowledge that
has an enormous potential for innovation, but are not yet open enough to
use this potential. The paper invites the legal sector service
providers, NGO's and other institutions working on access to rights to
consider the development of innovative services in the spirit of
Microjustice. Moreover, governments and donors are urged to think about
access to justice programs in terms of creating a climate for innovation
and a business climate that stimulates legal service providers to
deliver their services at the bottom of the pyramid.
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»
Priorities for the Justice System: Responding to the Most Urgent Legal
Problems of Individuals
At some points in their lives, people experience legal problems that
induce justice needs: they need protection by outside norms or
interventions that structure the conduct of other persons. This paper
attempts to identify the most prevalent and urgent legal problems of
individuals. Also, it discusses the policy implications for governments,
donors in the area of law and development, and private suppliers of
norms and interventions. This exploration of urgent legal problems and
the most effective ways to meet justice needs suggests that there are
many gaps between the type of protection that individuals need, and what
legal systems are able to deliver.
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» How to
measure the Price and Quality of Access to Justice?
People that experience legal problems, need access to a private or
public mechanism that induces government officials and other citizens to
respect their rights. They need 'paths to justice'. Walking these paths
is costly. Disputants, for instance, spend money, time and effort when
they bring their case forward in negotiations, in a court action, or in
other dispute resolution procedures. In this paper, which presents the
first results of a project aimed at developing tools for measuring
access to justice, it is explored how the price and quality of access to
justice can be determined. Issues that have to be resolved are
identified and a number of options to deal with these issues are
selected.
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» Access to
Justice: the Quality of Procedure
The quality of procedures is believed to play an important role in
access to justice. Fair procedures are likely to improve access to
justice. This paper discusses the most relevant research findings and
theories of procedural justice. In addition, the different
conceptualisations of justice and their relevance for the purpose of
evaluating the quality of procedures are discussed in more detail in
order to determine which indicators of procedural justice are most
relevant and should therefore be incorporated into a measurement method
to assess the quality of procedures.
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Articles:
» Bringing
Justice to the Poor: Bottom-up Legal Development Cooperation
This paper seeks to study the content of bottom-up approaches, looking
at how they are defined, how they analyze problems they seek to solve
and at the measures they propagate to reach such solutions. Second, the
paper addresses why these approaches have emerged over the last decade.
Third, the paper analyzes the merits of bottom-up approaches.
Recognizing the many merits of these approaches, this paper concludes
that they are not complete substitutes for the current rule of law
paradigm or free of some of the same problems that have plagued existing
legal development cooperation practices, so often criticized. As such
they offer much to existing practices and the existing rule of law
paradigm, but should be seen as additions and be incorporated into
existing practices instead of fully replacing them.
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» "Too far
removed from the people" Access to Justice for the Poor: the case of
Latin America
This paper
discusses access to justice for the poor in Latin American countries. It
takes its cue from the 'Latin American legal paradox': provisions for
economic and social rights are generously incorporated into the legal
framework of most countries, yet they score poorly in terms of
accommodating those rights for the poor. The author enumerates the
problems facing the poor when seeking redress through the court system:
lack of information; high costs; corruption; excessive formalism; fear
and mistrust; inordinate delays; and geographical distance. While
acknowledging the significance of these obstacles the author goes on to
discuss the very structure of the judiciaries, deliberately insulated
from the populace. The final part of the paper reviews 'informal'
mechanisms of justice at the local level and the gradual acknowledgement
of such approaches by formal legal institutions.
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