Access To Justice Research Articles

The language question at a historically Afrikaans university: Access and social justice issues

The year 2015 saw the most unprecedented student protests since apartheid South Africa. The issues ranged from decolonisation of the curriculum to no paying of fees to challenging the hegemonic position of Afrikaans in historically Afrikaans universities. After the 2015 protests, the question of language in ensuring educational access and validating lived experiences of African language-speaking students remains largely unaddressed. This paper interrogates the intersection between language, epistemic access and social justice. Contention is made that university language policies play a central role in this interconnectedness. It is further argued that because a language policy is not a value-free document, but a text that embodies ideologies that inform its existence, the policy has an impact on how the languages are distributed for educational access and the implication of such distribution on social justice issues. Specifically, these issues are discussed with reference to North-West University. The institution's language policy is critically examined to show how the language strategies recommended in the language policy support and/or constrain access to knowledge by all students and the possible effects of the strategies on social justice issues. The article ends with a call for inclusive and transformative approaches to the language policy in order to address the educational needs of all students and therefore ensure social justice for all students.

Simplification of Court Procedures and Reduction of Court Outlays as a Condition for Ensuring the Availability of Justice at the Current Stage

У статті розглянуто спрощення судових процедур та скорочення судових витрат як взаємопов’язані складові доступності правосуддя, що безпосередньо впливають на ефективність забезпечення права на справедливий суд. Доведено, що посилення правотворчої і правозастосовної роботи за цими напрямками сприятиме покращенню гарантій забезпечення права на справедливий суд на сучасному етапі.

Transforming asymmetrical conflicts over natural resources in the Global South

This article examines the relationship between natural resources and processes of conflict and cooperation as they occur in the Global South. We introduce key issues and reflect on emerging research. With a focus on middle-range theory, moving from empirical phenomena to analytical understanding, what emerges is a nuanced view of conflict and cooperation, as embedded within specific contexts and wider processes of power and accumulation. In considering how social ecological resilience can emerge from the poorest and most marginalised groups in the Global South, middle-range theory built upon comparative case study research and data-rich analyses brings issues of environmental (in)justice in resource access and distribution to the fore. Our conclusions reiterate a view of conflict transformation whose dynamics are locally situated, with complex drivers that negate any conjuring of simplistic solutions and underline the important role research can play in informing appropriate development action.

Формирование инклюзивной культуры при реализации инклюзивного образования: вызовы и достижения

The article analyzes the concept of inclusive culture and the methodology of its definition and formation, attempts to apply this methodology in different countries (USA, UK, Spain, New Zealand, Australia). In international practice, educational inclusion is created on the basis of educational organization inclusive culture which is considered as the ground of inclusive policy and practice. In the framework of organizational approach, inclusive culture is defined as a set of shared values which favour creating of inclusive community in organization. Changes of shared values accepting diversity of learners and their educational needs have a key significance in this process. These changes should concern not only declared values, but basic assumptions of educational organization members. The understanding of social justice and equity which lays in the ground of inclusive values influences inclusive policy and practice. In the modern discourse of inclusion, this understanding is based mainly on social-constructionist approach, which conditions preferences in interpretation of social justice and equity in access to education and associated with these preferences risks. In conclusion, the need for the balance between tasks of education and inclusion is suggested in order to minimize risks associated with different understandings of equity in the access to education

Refusal to Accept Applications and Protection of Interested Parties in Civil and Administrative Court Procedure: Some Issues

The paper discusses some aspects of the unification of the rules of civil and administrative procedure following the example of the rules on refusal to accept a statement. From the doctrinal point of view, the problem of the relationship of these norms with the tasks and basic initial principles of the civil process is investigated. Court practice on the refusal to accept the application due to the lack of jurisdiction of the case is analyzed. Within the framework of the topic under the study, some provisions of the draft law of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on amendments to the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, the agrarian and industrial complex of the Russian Federation, the CAS of the Russian Federation are assessed. The author makes suggestions, the implementation of which will increase the effectiveness of judicial protection of interested persons, will ensure the availability of justice in civil and administrative cases and will contribute to procedural economy.

Justice and politics in energy access for education, livelihoods and health: How socio-cultural processes mediate the winners and losers

The rhetoric on development benefits of energy access often focuses on education, livelihoods and health. Using case studies of two energy access projects in India, this paper demonstrates that these claims, while true in part, are neither simple nor straightforward. It argues that pre-existing socio-cultural processes mediate the development outcomes of energy access projects. In particular, the roles of gender, socio-economic positions and the local economy are vital in understanding the links between education, livelihoods, health and energy.This paper is important for two reasons. First, working with culture as a mediator, it provides nuanced insights into relationships between energy access and three key development goals. Second, by presenting this analysis, the paper identifies a need for further research on the relationships between socio-cultural processes, development and energy access and, how by keeping these processes in mind, the benefits of energy access could be extended to less privileged social groups. This paper is based on a nine-month long ethnographic research in five villages in India’s Bihar state. Home tours, interviews, participant observations and group discussions were used to collect the data.

Determination of Junior High School Location Through Geographic Information System Utilization

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a management tool in the form of computer-assisted information related to the system's mapping and analysis of all occurences on earth. In education, GIS can be used to determine the location of the new school. The purpose of writing this article is to explain the importance of GIS in determining the location of education. The object of study is the equity and expansion of education access, in the form of determining the location of new schools. The method of writing this article was using the relevant literature analysis. Conclusion of this article is for equity and justice of public access in obtaining education service, determination of new school location needs to use Geographic Information System.

SPECIAL ORDER OF JUVENILE FAMILY RIGHTS PROTECTION: THEORY AND RESEARCH ASPECTS

The article describes theory and research aspects of special order of juvenile family rights protection on the basis of existing family legislation. A key problem in this sphere is child's special legal status in family relations. Every child acts as a subject of these relations and has the right to protect the rights independently in all ways provided not only according to the Family code of the Russian Federation (further - the IC RF) but also using different ways specified in other laws. Traditionally there are two main forms of juvenile protection - jurisdictional and not jurisdictional. The main form of juvenile protection is jurisdictional: general (or judicial) and special (or administrative) protection acts. The author analyzed standards of the Family code of the Russian Federation and the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the Federal law "About children’s welfare", the Federal law "About Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation", the Decree of the President "About children’s rights ombudsman of the Russian Federation ". The author also studies scientific works of the leading Russian scientists in the field of family law. During the research the author draws a conclusion that administrative protection of juvenile family rights in the Russian Federation has legislative solution. At the same time, it is necessary to recognize that achievement of native law and order is the right for judicial protection proclaimed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 1993. It states the availability of justice to any person and restriction inadmissibility to appeal to the court.

The Role of Private Sector in Higher Education; From Quantity and Quality to Access and Social Justice

The Role of Private Sector in Higher Education; From Quantity and Quality to Access and Social Justice

What Context Matters? Rule of Law Programming in the Midst of Post-conflict Insecurity

Following civil war, (re)establishing operational, legitimate and accessible justice systems for resolving disputes is touted as critical for sustainable peace. While rule of law programming has gained significant traction as the favoured solution internationally, questions remain as to what approach such programming should take, and how complex dynamics in societies emerging from civil war affect local populations trying to access justice, particularly in legally plural settings. This article sheds light on these questions by examining a case study of a programme that took an alternative approach to the ‘rule of law orthodoxy’. The programme, known as PEACE Foundation Melanesia, engaged with customary justice systems in post-conflict Bougainville, and took into account some of the contextual realities faced by local populations. In particular, the material presented in this study—drawn from 42 interviews—shows how post-conflict insecurity, and related concerns about related psychological ill-health and cycles of retaliation played a significant part in preferences, experiences, and impact of the programme for local populations.

Developing a Framework for Future Mobile Data Pricing

Purpose: The revenues for mobile data transmission overtook the revenue of voice calls for the first time in 2014 in the USA. It can be observed that demand for mobile data – largely driven by video and cloud - is increasing exponentially, while overall data revenue is rising only moderately. This will lead to insufficient revenues stream to increase investments into mobile networks and ensure quality service. Consequently, hereof network performance will deteriorate sharply. At the heart of the problem is the current global pricing regime of fixed multiple MB/GB bundles, irrespective of time of the day, intensity of usage (e.g. video vs. email) and underlying economic value of the data. A new framework is proposed as to optimize and align network capacity and implicit data value/utility, which is crucial to ensure customer satisfaction and access justice.Methodology/Approach: The fundamental differences in pricing voice and data in voice and/or data centric networks are analysed in detail. Information has been synthesized as to develop insights into the impact of different devises and type of digital traffic for the overall performance of mobile networks. Based hereupon, a new framework for mobile data has been proposed to address the increasing misalignment between network capacity, usage and underlying data value/utility. Initial solutions have been proposed and discussed.Findings: While voice calls are easily quantifiable and are largely predictable in its occurrence and network load implications, mobile data traffic shows very large variations depending on type of traffic. While social media messaging by many customers consumes very little capacity, consumption of video streaming by relatively few customers can lead already to network saturation.Research Limitation/implication: Carriers set prices for a fixed amount of data – irrespective of intensity and time of data traffic - which leads to sharp spiky type of traffic patterns essentially signalling sharp overuse during busy hours coexist with large period of underused times.Originality/Value of paper: A new framework for proposition building and particularly pricing of mobile data services is provided.

Development of Administrative Judgment Proceeding and Administrative Justice in Russia

The paper presents the historical aspect of the development of administrative justice in Russia. A widehistorical period is studied beginning with the pre-revolutionary period and ending on the present stage.Besides, the paper analyzes historical and legal documents on the issues under consideration to generalize.The author points out that Russia has a rich experience of the institute of administrative justice.The history of the development of domestic legislation administrative proceedings and administrativejustice can help in reforming the modern legislation in this area as the mistakes of the past must not beforgotten and repeated in the future. The paper emphasizes that the current administrative procedurallegislation provides for two procedures of reviewing decisions on administrative offences: prejudicialand judicial. At that, the choice of a specific grievance procedure of a decision on a case on administrativeoffence is provided to a person brought to justice on administrative case (delinquent). The historyof administrative justice clearly shows the fact: until now no even generalizing view to the nature of theinstitution of administrative justice has existed. No definitions are shaped for fundamental conceptsof administrative process, administrative and jurisdiction case, administrative dispute, administrativejustice, administrative legal proceedings etc. the same may be said on the subject matter, contentand scope. The main objective of administrative justice in any country including Russia is creating anopportunity to establish relations between the subject without authority and public power on a clear,expedient and legal basis. The development and improvement of administrative justice is an importantguarantee of rights for the subject without authority, a significant step as to implementing administrativereform in Russia. It should be noted that the ideas on establishing the system of administrative justicewhich would promote to the implementation of the RF constitution provision on the operative access tojustice but will free courts from irrelevant functions, which is justified and topical in the contemporarylegal setting.

ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND ABUSES OF CONTRACT

Mass-market standardized fine print (boilerplate) altering the rights of consumers is greatly expanding in today’s digital environment Mass-market boilerplate impacts access to justice when it deletes rights to redress of grievances. Such deletion of rights leads to normative degradation because it undermines agreement, which is the basis of justifiable contractual enforcement, and leads to democratic degradation because it undermines the basis of civil society and the rule of law. A brief comparison of US and Canadian common law suggests that Canada’s legal system is less willing to allow these inroads into access to justice.

Money, Power, Equity and Higher Education

In current issue of the Journal of Medical Education, Afshar in the Editorial “The Role of Private Sector in Higher Education; From Quantity and Quality to Access and Social Justice” proposed the importance of justice and quality. (1) It seems that there are some differences between two types of private sector in higher education. One type of private financial support in higher education comes purely from private sector without any contribution of public sector. The second type of private finance in the higher education especially the type which has grown recently in Iranian higher education is a type of combination between public higher education and private sector the so called international branch of the university till recent years, and nowadays called selfgoverning campus of the university. (2) In this type of private contribution to public higher education those who have no or little money must pass very hard national examination to be accepted in the university, and those who can pay the tuition fee could enter to the best schools of that university without the exam (in the first year of the project) or by loose standards or lower cut off scores. Actually, this is an instance of the double standards. One of the elements of being equitable and avoiding discrimination is to prevent undue achievement by the owners of the power such as owners of political, religious, economic, or military power, and to avoid any distinction according to race, colour, sex, language, and etc. (3) In this type of private money absorption in the higher education, while the others have no extra way to enter to the university that would lead to achievement of scientific power, the owners of the economic powers’ daughters and sons could have a special chance to achieve scientific power by the power of their parents, and there is a different criterion to enter the university based on non-scientific differences. In such situation growing student movements against commercialism of knowledge and education which is contrary to their culture and also against fair distribution of educational opportunities is probable. (4-6) In this condition the pressure of stigma on the student with lower scores in the entrance and the other examinations is not ethically acceptable either. The other problem of this type of private financial support in higher education is the matter of distinguishing the clear border between public sector incomes regarding the private one. Some similar studies in combining public and private healthcare services showed that it is the private sector that finally has income from the public one contrary to the presuppositions. (7) From another view supporters of self-governing branch (previously called international branch, while it doesn’t have real international students, faculty members or staffs) could state some benefits for private contribution to public sector higher education such as taking financial resources from private to the public, preventing capital leakage of rich people in the country to abroad. More over, It is said that “it is better to spend your money to attain knowledge and degree comparing with those who spend their talents and academic knowledge and degree to attain money in an unethical way”; namely if rich persons tend to spend their money to improve their family members knowledge and to help the scientific sector of the public, it would be appreciated as a good practice and act. on the other hand, could see some talent students or graduates who committed immoral practices such as a case in which a doctor explicitly states to the laboratory or other Para clinics colleague: “how much do I get if I send you patients?” (8) Conclusion: Entering best fields of best universities by the lower cut off scores comparing other similar applicant merely because of parents’ economic status could consider as an exemplary of unequal opportunity for equal ones. Helping public science sector of the society via paid tuitions may diminishes the ugliness of injustice, however public sector incomes clearance is essential to make public benefit claims real and documented. In the other hand stigmatization of the student with lower scores after their entrance to the university also seems to be unethical.

Hindu Code Bill: Towards Liberation of Women

Multiple roles of maternity formed the core of the discourse surrounding the controversial Hindu Code Bill during 1941–1956. In the struggle to reach a social agreement on family laws for the majority Hindu community in modern India, the discourse in the public and legislative scope brought out the split social ethics on maternity in Indian society. The constructive phase of family law reforms also played an important role in the social formation of the identity of maternity. The current revitalization of the discussion on enacting a uniform civil code, which its proponents trust will give all oppressed women equal rights, manages the reality of the discrimination that Hindu women continue to face in spite of alterations in Hindu personal laws, including issues of maintenance and inheritance. Instead of consistency in law oppressed women need an accessible and affordable justice system. Gender equality often stands compromised in several personal laws in India, along with the history of legislature having a non-interfering attitude in altering inequitable personal laws, in order to avoid negotiating on their political vote banks, unless rebuked by the judiciary.

A defensoria pública como garantia constitucional processual de acesso à justiça na América do Sul

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the Public Legal Defense as a constitutional and procedural guarantee stated to enforce the access to justice. From an approach according to the Law and the Public Policies, the paper assays the consideration of procedural guarantees in Constitutions, especially in the Latin American context. It pursues to demonstrate the importance of the Public Legal Defense in Brazil as a constitutional guarantee statued to enforce the access to justice, especially in South America. Methodologically, the paper explores the hypothetical-deductive method, in a qualitative research, and explanatory literature and documents, especially the Constitutions from South America’s countries and other normative acts involving similar organizations or resembling services. As a result, the paper establishes a strong influence of the Public Legal Defense model adopted in Brazil towards other countries of South America, some of them including it as a constitutional guarantee stated to ensure equality and to enforce the access to justice.

Between Regulatory and Autonomy‐Based Private Law

AbstractThe emergent European Regulatory Private Law (ERPL) can be interpreted as a set of instruments in the service of collectivist aims and thus a radical departure of EU law from private law; but it need not. This article offers a competing interpretation of the three core pillars of ERPL: its reliance on the notion of regulated autonomy, its endorsement of access justice as a normative basis and its critique of the public/private distinction as it relates to EU law. ERPL in my reconstruction is a model for a private law system that embraces the liberal commitments to self‐determination, and thus, substantive equality, as its underlying normative infrastructure, is not overly embedded in the adjudicatory model and is sensitive to public concerns. Regulated autonomy and access justice, in this view, are local manifestations of the prescription of relational justice, which stands at the core of an autonomy‐based private law, properly interpreted. This understanding, I claim, is both normatively and jurisprudentially attractive; it is also particularly befitting to our transnational era, because it provides a non‐statist foundation for the prescriptions of non‐discrimination and accommodation.

Measuring Altruistic Impact: A Model for Understanding the Social Justice of Open Access

INTRODUCTION Traditional assessment of ways in which open access initiatives and institutional repositories have provided a return on investment normally use pragmatic measures such as download counts and citation benefits. This pragmatic approach misses out on the powerful altruistic impact of improving access to international and/or marginalized communities. Using a frame of social justice, this article considers the importance of developing altruistic measures of repositories, particularly for institutions with missions specifically related to social justice and related themes. METHODS Using web analytics data for search keywords from eight institutions and geographic usage data from nine institutions, the authors were able to determine how well social justice related content is accessed by search engines and how much overall content is accessed internationally, particularly by lower-resourced countries. A social justice term list was developed to permit corpus overlap analysis with each institution’s search keywords, while the World Bank country income lists were used to determine international access by low and low-middle income countries. RESULTS Universities with mission statements explicitly mentioning social justice or Catholic social teaching had greater overlap with the social justice corpus. Low and low-middle income countries as defined by the World Bank were among the most engaged users. All institutions had at least one social justice search term in their top ten; Marquette University had five. Collection development in social science and environmental sustainability at Loyola University Chicago successfully increased this term overlap year-over-year and increased user engagement as measured by session length. DISCUSSION The results of this exploratory study indicate that it is possible to use repository data to evaluate the success of an institution’s open access and social justice initiatives. The year-over-year improvement of Loyola’s numbers suggest in addition that it is possible to increase social justice impact through collection development. Performing an analysis of social justice impact can be used as an overall strategy for repository success and outreach on campus, particularly for institutions where social justice is an important part of the campus identity. For repositories in need of further resources, the ability to quantify impact for university administrators and decision-makers may be of use. CONCLUSION For institutions with a social justice mission, improving social justice content may improve repository ranking in social justice related search results. Collection development strategies should focus on departments and/or individuals who are working in social justice related areas, which defined broadly could encompass much of an institution. For institutions that emphasize social justice, it may be easier to approach faculty who might not otherwise have an interest in open access issues.External Data or Supplements:Heller, M. & Gaede, F. (2016). Appendix A: Social Justice Term Analysis & Appendix B: Social Justice Overlap Template & Geographic Usage. http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/XU5IBN, Harvard Dataverse.

Content of the Right to the Access to Justice

The paper features the content of the right to the access to justice in terms of international law andits correlation with the right to a fair trial and the right to judicial protection. The author notes a special feature in the development of the concept of access to justice originating in national law and gets fixed in the acts of international organizations and bodies on the protection of human rights and international treaties. The analysis of the evolution of the conception enables to specify a special aim of legal regulationas to providing a possibility to every interested party to get involved in the litigation procedure concerning the rights and interests irrespective of economic and other obstacles. The paper assesses the views of foreign authors on the concept of access to justice and shows the causes of their wide, universal approach to this concept. The author examines the right of access to justice in two variants: asan access to national means of protection and the access to international tools. A prerequisite for rightto the access to international mechanisms is specified, i.e. approval of state to join a certain protectionmechanism. The author defines the right to the access to justice and specifies the principle of equality before court to justify this right. The paper stresses that currently the access to justice is increasing both nationally and internationally. This may show a formation of commonly recognized right to the access tojustice instrumental in removing barriers between the parties interested in examining a certain dispute and the mechanisms of court administration.

Negative Feststellungsklage bei unberechtigter Abmahnung

Over time the consecration of political and democratic social models have allowed to convert the process into a category of an instrument or alternative in exercising the fundamental right to Access Justice; it is an Instrument, certainly, but it is an indispensable instrument in achieving this and it became a guarantor of citizens, with the right to claim protection and to do so from parameters that responded from a formal structure to the achievements that modern constitutionalism has achieved. We might think the world has changed. And with this change society and Justice has also undergone transformations. The panorama that we live offers us a desperate search for a model of Justice in which prevails in the reduction of costs of the public treasury. This economic vision that inspires national, supranational and international policies has inspired reforms, has led to changes, justified absences and minimized the process. This, as a conquest of civilization in the context of conflict resolution, became the nuclear axis of a model of social justice in which citizens acquired the leading role and the protective state assumed the role of guaranteeing them to facilitate real Access to Justice for all. The importance of knowledge and management of the process led to the consolidation of university education in the process, with the subject of and with a very important amount of scientific work that has allowed to maintain the study of the process, besides the jurisdiction and the action, in one of the core-subjects of legal studies. The 21st century has dawned, however, with a very different reality. For many reasons, it is easy to observe how in the most prestigious foreign universities the subject of Procedural Law disappears from the curriculum of law, and the Chairs of Procedural or Process Law are replaced by Justice, Litigation “ADR, Evidence or Sentencing. Obviously, the process has not disappeared. There it is, and it is subject to changes, successive modifications, constantly, some of them are contradictory, almost as if you wanted to find it in a pill of happiness, as a method of transferring it to a third the competence to solve all evils. And, of course, we want a quick response, without excessive cost and favorable to anyone asks for it. The consequence of all this has led to the creation of a collapsed procedural model, without the adequate means to respond to this litigation explosion to which OLSON referred to at the end of the last century, generating a great dissatisfaction among citizens.