Tilburg Law School starts a Microjustice Reteach Program

Tilburg Law School, part of Tilburg University located in southern Netherlands, was an early partner to ILA's microjustice initiative through professor J.M. Barendrecht. In fact, the initial concept was presented in a paper co-authored between ILA and the school. I'm taking the liberty of reproducing the school's program on microjustice, from its website, as follows (UPDATED: see also it's various useful microjustice publications as well as the team's contact information): 

The Microjustice Research Program

The Microjustice Research and Innovation Program supports the development of Microjustice. Microjustice is an innovative bottom-up approach to access to justice. It aims to deliver justice to the people at the base of the pyramid in a way similar to micro-services that serve needs for credit, savings, insurance, and healthcare. It strives to make access to justice affordable and sustainable.

Project Information

Background and concept:

Management of interpersonal (resource) conflict is essential for economic growth, peace and stability. Microjustice is an innovative approach that strives to make access to justice affordable and sustainable, through focus on:

Family disputes, property conflict, and labor issues: they disrupt lives. In essence, these legal problems are about people's investments in their homes, land, family, business, and work. Protecting their rights in these investments is essential for economic development. Legal systems - formal or informal - are often not accessible for the poor. Improving access to justice; that is what microjustice is about.

The traditional approach in rule of law and access to justice is top down: most resources are spend on building courts, drafting codes and constitutions, training judges and regulating lawyers. In recent years, however, the focus is shifting to a more bottom up approach. These legal empowerment initiatives focus and build on local needs and capabilities.

At the same time, several innovative approaches to delivering products and professional services to people living at the Base of the Pyramid have been developed. Microfinance initiatives broke down complex professional banking services like money lending and insurance into basic services that can be delivered locally and sustainably. These microservices have proven to be very successful.

New perspectives from the emerging discipline of dispute system design indicate that similar innovations are possible for legal services: microjustice. The Microjustice Research Program integrates a number of research projects that focus on obtaining deep insight in the functionality of the justice system and bring forth innovation (in the form and standardized tools and products). The focus is on five basic tasks that the justice system supports:

Meeting > Incentives and reasons to meet and change the status quo;

Talking > Structuring communication and negotiation;

Sharing > Divide assets, money, time and other issues in a fair way;

Deciding > Neutral decision making in case clients do not agree;

Stabilizing > Transparency of relationships and reasons for compliance.

Approach and Strategy

Within the Microjustice Research Program, a number of tools and products are developed and tested locally, which can be used to design sustainable, effective and accessible dispute systems. Knowledge and research methods from a number of disciplines are combined (legal theory, comparative law, social psychology, victimology, sociology, institutional economics, micro economics, negation theory, conflict studies, dispute system design, etc), as well as modern information technologies. With these tools and products, major contributions can be made to the development of microjustice and legal empowerment initiatives as well as to the development of an evidence based dispute system design.

TISCO cooperates with local partners (ngo's and universities), Oxfam Novib, the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HiiL), the Benelux Base of the Pyramid Learning Lab, the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences (department of Organisation Studies) and the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (department of Organisation and Strategy) of Tilburg University. TISCO participates in the Microjustice Initiative.

The Great Firewall is only one small part of Chinese censorship

It seems that the Great Chinese Firewall is in conversations everywhere these days. I myself posted about my lack of access to this blog every time I visit Beijing. But yet, especially given this report I blogged about last year, that is only a part of the means of control. I'm reminded to remind my readers about this fact after coming across Rebecca Mackinnon's blog post last month, which I really liked because she gave a more personal insight on Chinese censorship than her recent AWSJ article.  

Youtube channel for UNDP Legal Empowerment of the Poor

In addition to the website I announced earlier, UNDP a few months ago has also set up a youtube channel under the username LegalEmpowerment1. You can subscribe to it. I'm hoping that there will be more useful and powerful content than the typical conference/workshop presentations and PR-type interviews that are currently uploaded. While still pretty PR-ish, this video about the Kenyan Toi Market (which includes Madeline Albright  giving a speech), and which subject matter was used as a case study in the Commission's Report, is interesting- the on-the-ground stories can be replicated in Asia and other developing countries.

UNDP Legal Empowerment Website: http://www.undp.org/legalempowerment/

I first blogged about the UN Commission of the Legal Empowerment of the Poor in a 2005 post here, and pointed readers to their website through my 2006 post here. Since then I've posted some of their followings and also some activities I've been involved with. Following the Forum in Davos in January 2007 and the launch of their report earlier this year in June (2008), the Commission announced the closure of the Commission site (which will be archived and still accessible), and the launch of the UNDP Legal Empowerment site.  


I will write more about the report soon (although I'm sure that there will be articles on the internet soon if not already), but for now, I would say that I'm pretty impressed at how methodological the group had been in terms of meeting its mandate and timeline. More than anything, including substance, I am most glad that this issue has been put into the global agenda. I'm excited to see how it will evolve and how I will continue to be a part of it.

Microjustice4All Website Launched

In addition to conversations about launching a second pilot after its year or so experience in Bolivia, ILA has launched a website for microjustice called Microjustice4All (www.microjustice4all.org). There is some basic information, but I would like to introduce the concept of microjustice (though I've blogged about it previously) from the horse's mouth:

What is Microjustice

In countries where a large part of the population lacks sufficient resources to subsist, access to a series of basic rights (like civil documentation and registration of property) often becomes a very difficult task; full of obstacles, lacking information and often financially inaccessible. In other words, for people in the most vulnerable groups it is especially difficult to exercise rights which are officially recognized and provided by the State.

What is Microjustice

The main concept of microjustice is empowering the poor through giving them access to their rights. Inspired by microfinance, microjustice is an international initiative that aims to facilitate access to the basic legal needs for the poorest sectors of the population and, in doing so, allowing them the same enjoyment of rights as the rest of the population. This initiative, as that of microservices in general, is based on the principles of solidarity and sustainability.

The UNDP recognises four main pillars of microjustice: access to right, property right, labour right and business right. Locally, many other kinds of rights (like educational rights, reproductive rights, rights of religion) can be relevant.

Why use the term Micro?

Micro does not refer to Justice itself, which is neither micro nor macro but rather an all encompassing term. The term Micro is chosen referring to:

1. 
   
   The minimum or basic needs of people for them to feel citizens in full enjoyment of their rights
2. 
   
   A service provided on an individual level, developing individualized solutions
3. 
   
   Emphasize the parallel that exists between Microjustice, microfinance and microinsurances and borrowing from them the term micro.

One of the reasons why I love California- technology, and progressiveness (well, most times...). From the Chronicle of Higher Education: (the WSJ article is also pretty interesting)

(Update: 14/11/2008  You can visit the SL Bar Association for upcoming CLE topics and speakers.)

California Bar Association Sanctions Legal Training in Virtual World

In a sign that virtual reality is becoming mainstream, a program in the virtual world Second Life, on the application of law in virtual worlds is counting for continuing legal education credit by the State Bar of California.

The blog, Legal Pad, states the four-part speaker series, which is sponsored by the Second Life Bar Association, began Tuesday with 25 avatars in attendance. The first session lasted two hours and included a discussion about copyright and trademark infringement.

The session went well except for a few glitches, the blog reports. “Some couldn’t log on, some couldn’t hear, and then there was the fashion crisis. Kate Fitz, the Sacramento County law librarian who was instrumental in getting accreditation for the program, said a glitch caused her ‘nice suit skirt’ to look like bike shorts.”

The Wall Street Journal also ran an article Thursday that says virtual worlds “have quietly slipped into the mainstream.”—Andrea L. Foster

Philippines Supreme Court Forum on Access to Justice 6/30- 7/2

I attended the Supreme Court of Philippines's forum Access to Justice from June 30 to July 1. Called "Forum on Increasing Access to Justice: Bridging Gaps and Removing Roadblocks", the Court received input from different stakeholders of the justice system, particularly the sectors that are most vulnerable, regarding their issues and concerns on access to justice, particularly through the judicial system, and recommendations on how the Court may address the same.

The Forum was held simultaneously through video conferencing in Manila, Cebu, and Cagayan de Oro. Materials from the conference can be accessed here: http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/publications/A2JForum/index.php. I hope to have more personal analysis of the issues on hand soon!