Local Justice Systems Research Articles

Governance Assessment of Local Restorative Justice System: A Case Study of Village Court in Bangladesh

Access to local justice resolutions is significant not only for the rule of law but also for human rights, democratic governance, poverty reduction and security. Since many rural residents do not have access to formal courts, local justice resolution, namely village court (VC), is the only restorative mechanism in Bangladesh that is accessible and convenient for the grassroots community. This study investigates the management of restorative justice in Bangladesh and evaluates its effectiveness in terms of participation, accountability and transparency. Using key informant interviews and focus group discussions with Union Parishad officials and locals, the study collected empirical data from 60 respondents, who were purposefully selected from four unions covering two districts in Bangladesh. To understand judicial proceedings and interpret the data accordingly, the research team also observed the hearing procedures of the VC with the permission of the proper authorities. Since the local justice resolution system only handles minor and petty cases related to civil and criminal matters, the study indicates that the VC allows a great deal of popular participation in adjudication processes and ensures partial transparency through an open hearing system without incorporating formal mechanisms of accountability. This analysis also shows that ensuring good governance practices in the VC becomes imperative for impartial and credible justice for the local community. Despite having several gaps in the governance framework and drawbacks, the study concludes that a strengthened restorative justice mechanism might contribute to the performance of the formal judiciary, provide a feasible option for locals, and empower them. Therefore, ensuring good governance requires a comprehensive approach that looks beyond legal and judicial reforms and tackles broader structural, social and economic factors. By exploring governance performance and gaps in the local justice system, the article significantly contributes to the government’s and policymakers’ efforts to measure progress and reduce weaknesses. Although the VC system is still relatively new in many countries, it could be an excellent resource for restorative justice systems across the globe.

Развитие систем органов юстиции в Малой России и Слободской Украине как способ их интеграции в состав России во второй половине XVII — первой половине XVIII века

The subject of this study is the bodies of justice that operated in the second half of the 17th and the first half of the 18th centuries in the Little Russia and Slobodskaya Ukraine. The novelty of the study lies in the author’s the desire to cover the variety of forms of administration of justice used to regulate social relations and integrate areas. The author substantiated the idea that the supreme power successfully used the provision of jurisdiction to the Cossack bodies in order not only to maintain the effectiveness of local justice systems, but also to consistently unify them.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation Victims Treated as Offenders: Examining the Gendered Risk Factors of Incarcerated Youth Charged with Prostitution

ABSTRACT Minors under the age of 18 involved in prostitution, or commercial sex acts, are defined as victims by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. However, state and local justice systems continued to arrest and incarcerate minors for prostitution after the passage of the TVPA despite widespread agreement that youth involved in commercial sexual exploitation are victims, not offenders. Most youth charged with prostitution have an extensive history of victimization experiences and detaining them often exacerbates their problems, delays appropriate therapeutic responses, interrupts their education, exposes them to youth who commit more serious offenses, and increases justice system costs. The purpose of this study is to describe the characteristics and risk factors (e.g., victimization histories, drug/alcohol use, gang involvement, home type) of justice-involved youth charged with prostitution in the United States. Given that males and females have different pathways to crime/arrest, this study will also test for gender differences in these risk factors using a nationally representative sample of incarcerated youth (Survey of Youth in Residential Placement; Sedlak, 2003). Results indicate this population of incarcerated youth have several risk factors, including extensive victimization experiences during childhood, and that these experiences vary by gender. I conclude with the implications of this research and give several policy and future research recommendation.

“F___ the County Council”: Local Government and Biopolitical Allegory in Flann O’Brien.

This article addresses the relationship between Brian O’Nolan’s writing and his career as a civil servant in the Irish Department of Local Government and Public Health. O’Nolan’s references to local government and the ambiguity of the law in Cruiskeen Lawn and The Third Policeman are placed in their proper historical context. By examining the contradictions of the Irish local government and local justice systems (from the pre-independence era to the Free State and successive administrations) a portrait emerges of O’Nolan as a writer of Irish biopolitics, who is concerned with the paradoxical relationship between national government and local organs of power. Biopolitical themes of legal and bureaucratic aporia are situated in the context of recent scholarly writing about the law, sovereignty, and the body in O’Nolan. The article also gives examples of historical episodes that were likely formative influences on his narrative style of political critique. From local issues such as land appropriation, to O’Nolan’s role as secretary to the tribunal of inquiry into a fire at St Joseph’s Orphanage in Cavan, a new image can be constructed of the author as a critic of Irish justice and a theorist of biopolitical concerns.

Child victim, loyal war spirit medium or war criminal: shifting the geography and logic of historical accountability in Dominic Ongwen’s ICC trial

ABSTRACT The complications which played out in ascribing an identity: victim, perpetrator or both, in Lord’s Resistance Army’s (LRA) child abduction victim turned Warlord, Dominic Ongwen, calls for the rethinking of the international criminal justice system. While law operates in black and white, politics is fraught with and at times thrives in proverbial grey areas. In order for justice to be done, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) geography and logic must be shifted epistemologically from the Global North to the sites where these atrocities were committed. The Roman-Dutch law logic, which largely informes the ICC’s jurisprudence, makes little existential logic to the thousands of the victims of the LRA’s over three decades of operations spanning over four countries. I argue against the token involvement of victims of human rights abuse by advocating for the deployment of local justice systems such as mato oput, as they not only resonate with the victims but also with the perpetrators, both herein termed survivors. Had mato oput been instituted first, the victim turned perpetrator complexity would have been addressed as the agent would have been cleansed, pardoned, and reintegrated into the community.

Reimagining Pretrial & Sentencing

In this article, we discuss the evolution of criminal justice reform efforts focused on pretrial and sentencing policies and practices that resulted in unprecedented rates of incarceration. There is an urgent need to identify a strategy of pretrial justice and sentencing that will reduce crime and victimization, ameliorate unwarranted disparities, and reclaim human capital currently lost to incarceration. A discussion of proposed policy reforms should begin by first identifying the costs incurred by pretrial decisions (and across further decision points in the justice system) on both the system and the collateral costs to the detained, their families and their communities. In the short-term, jurisdictions should reconsider probation and parole policies and practices that contribute to mass incarceration. Mid-term improvements require inter-agency approaches by law enforcement, prosecutors, and the courts to institute alternatives to incarceration and collaborate with health and community organizations to address underlying issues that lead to local justice system intervention. Importantly, what we highlight is the need for a long-term approach designed to slow the flow of individuals into jails and prisons and to reduce the lengths of sentences they are serving.

Venezuela, Grand Corruption, and the International Criminal Court

Venezuela’s ongoing crisis has resulted in the first-ever joint request from States Parties to the ICC to open a preliminary examination. The evidence presented until now of crimes against humanity focuses on attacks on political opposition and demonstrators. We contend that the situation in Venezuela is not fully comprehensible, and the referral falls short, without looking through the lens of grand corruption. We describe what we mean by grand corruption and how it has corroded Venezuela. We explain how applying a corruption lens to every step of the preliminary examination process – the existence of crimes against humanity, the unwillingness of local justice systems to operate, the gravity of the harm even with a relatively small number of killings, and the interests of justice – is better understood if a corruption-infused analysis is brought to bear. We then turn to some caveats and limiting considerations. Finally, we draw some implications for other, increasingly common, situations where grave violations of international criminal law take place because of, and maintained by, systems of kleptocracy.

Rationale for Access to Local Justice Systems: The Case of Village Court in Bangladesh

This article intends to highlight the rationale for access to local justice mechanisms and village court that can play a significant role towards access to justice for the rural community in Bangladesh. The paper is basically based on the review of secondary materials. Previously the term ‘access to justice’ had only been perceived as an individual's possibility to get justice through legal bodies or legal representation. But now the meaning is more than that and has gained new forefront and quest in development agenda. It is obvious that access to local justice is now regarded as a fundamental instrument of ensuring human rights, good governance, inclusive and sustainable development as well as a process of tackling poverty, inequality, lawlessness and discrimination. Yet, the majority of the people in the globe, particularly developing economics have the dearth of access to formal courts. Moreover, the quest for access to justice in Bangladesh has historically rooted in the formal and informal structure of local justice mechanisms. The evidence suggests that the village court in Bangladesh is the only state-sponsored local justice system and is also believed that village court is the most accessible, affordable, convenient and viable opportunity for grassroots community as opposed to the formal judicial process. Despite having drawbacks, village court has been playing a significant avenue of the marginalized people for access to justice and a mechanism in settling petty local disputes and helps the formal judicial system to lessen its workloads. Therefore, the article concludes that access to local justice mechanism is needed to promote and tackle broader structural, social and economic issues of the country.

Las fuentes judiciales para el estudio de los cabildos indianos

Within the secular organization of the city governments in Colonial Spanish America, we see that the first authorities to judge a trial varied according to the decision of the town hall. They could include the mayor, members of the Hermandad, or of the Mesta. Through an examination of documents actually produced during these court proceedings, we see how the procedures and members of local judicial councils are influenced by previous Spanish models. This paper offers definitive conclusions about these judicial structures and procedures due to the breadth of the documentation examined, which not only includes local records, but also documents produced by the interaction between the city governments and the other judicial and political institutions of the Spanish Empire, including viceroys, officials from the Council of the Indies, governors, mayors, corregidores, ecclesiastical authorities, and landed gentry. Indeed, an analysis of the interface between all levels of government is imperative for a profound understanding of the local justice system in Colonial Latin America.

More time in the kitchen, less time on the streets: the micropolitics of cultivating an ethic of care in alternative food networks

ABSTRACTThere is increased attention to alternative food efforts as individuals and groups seek to build stronger local food infrastructures to increase accessibility, transparency, and fairness with how food is grown, produced, and distributed. In considering individuals and families contending with food injustices and insecurities; concerns and questions have surfaced about what it means to privilege the leadership and participation of these communities in alternative food efforts. While there are no linear answers to these questions, this paper explores how one statewide food network in the United States seeks to involve youth contending with the juvenile justice system in a job readiness programme, Youth Kitchen, that interfaces the youth with farmers, chef educators, community organisations, and farmers markets. This paper contends that integrating alternative food and juvenile justice work is a complex terrain that both advances social justice and reproduces existing power asymmetries within alternative food networks. The inclusion of accounts from multiple stakeholders in the local food and juvenile justice system generates a multilayered view that moves away from an either sustainability or social justice rubric to a more process-oriented lens that reveals the strategic dilemmas that alternative food networks encounter. On the one hand, the social landscape of this programme promotes an ethic of care and shared ownership between the staff and participating youth. At the same time, akin to many alternative food networks, neoliberal interests bump against this ethic of care and white privilege seeps into staffing patterns and everyday programmes in ways that reproduce the status quo.

Bail Again: Reforming Appellate Review of Bail Determinations in State Court

On any given day, local jails detain nearly half-a-million people who cannot afford bail. Opposition to this status quo, and to monetary conditions of pretrial release more broadly, has reached a fever pitch in recent years. Critics from across the political spectrum decry bail as a wellspring of mass incarceration and acknowledge its profoundly discriminatory effects, particularly within low-income communities of color. Academic studies link bail to poorer case outcomes and a myriad of destabilizing collateral consequences for pretrial detainees. And local justice systems have begun to grapple with the high human and economic costs of incarcerating large numbers of people still presumed innocent under the law. Amid widespread agreement that bail is broken, it is easy to forget that the system has been in a suspended state of crisis for decades and proved resistant to change before. In the face of this critical and persistent problem, this Note offers appellate review of bail determinations as a viable avenue for reform. By revamping the “bail appeal”—a procedure that has received little attention from reformers and academics alike—states have an opportunity to reduce the scourge of pretrial detention, conserve the time and resources of local justice systems, and provide a durable promise of pretrial justice.

Jails and Local Justice System Reform: Overview and Recommendations

Jails and Local Justice System Reform: Overview and Recommendations

ASSURING QUALITY IN LEGAL EDUCATION THROUGH ACTION RESEARCH

INTRODUCTION:The global changing landscape in higher education has resulted in the expansion of higher education from elite to mass to universal systems, new trends in teaching and learning, growth of alternative systems of education, changes in the market place and new demands and needs of society. Quality education is a dream of any economy as its socio-economic, technological, political and cultural development highly depends on the type of skilled manpower available. Assuring quality is a continuous and cyclic process which is dependent on the changing needs of the society/economy. Quality assurance in totality has challenges which can be addressed through action research for the institutions to get solutions to these challenges. Action research process is collaborative where people work together in a democratic process to effect change in an organization. Being a cyclic process the issues can be solved through collaboration and reflection by key players and other stakeholders.QUALITY ASSURANCE IN A NUT SHELL:The concept of quality assurance has emerged as a primary instrument for evaluating performance and accountability in higher education as observes Kistan (1999). In any learning institution, quality is measured in terms of the input-process-output variables in teaching - learning, research, and creative work that foster as intellectual culture that bridge theory and practice producing holistic graduants for the demanding labor market. Kistan (1999) looks at quality assurance at policy level as power and control and measured in terms of accountability while at institutional level, as students' experiences and achievements.Given the nature of higher learning institutions in terms of fragmentation and diversity in resource allocation, the standards may not be compared between the institutions. These calls for every institution to be open minded, look at their peculiar challenges from all perspectives understand them and undertake corrective measures without playing a blame game. South African Universities' Vice Chancellors Association initiated a quality assurance audit program with the following objectives; assist universities in establishing internal quality assurance systems by means of self-evaluation, undertake external quality audits for improvement and accountability purpose and prepare the system for future program assessment for accreditation purpose, Quality Promotion Unit (1997). This initiative has seen the quality of higher education in South Africa improve. Many institutions of higher learning have looked at quality assurance as a form of self-evaluation and peer review mainly through moderation of examinations by external examiners and periodical departmental reviews. However there is lack of a systematic quality assurance system. In India, Chile, the United Kingdom and Netherlands quality assurance has contributed to the transformation of higher education sector causing major paradigm shiftfrom a protected system to an exposed system Kistan ( 1999).Action research is used by education practitioners to crystalize the major objectives of quality assurance in higher education of acceptability by both the state and the stakeholders. In assuring quality in higher education, a number of challenges are faced which can be established through action research. The nature of the problem is determined and solutions to the problems established. Legal education institutions face myriad of problems in curriculum management, resource development and management, learners' satisfaction, staffing and research and development. There is high demand for legal education and training and the quest for quality education at the same time. With the rising challenges in offering legal education and training, there is need for a paradigm shiftfrom the traditional ways of winning institutions. The needs of the society are changing every day from central governance to devolution at the County government, from agricultural economy to oil/mineral mining in Turkana, from local justice systems to international systems (The Hague) and from scientific emphasis to technological and innovative approaches like distance learning and use of IT in curriculum implementation and from analogue to digital. …

Administration of State Sponsored Local Justice System: An Appraisal on the Legal Framework of Village Courts in Bangladesh

AbstractAccess to justice is one of the significant pre-requisites for sustainable human development and it has been made available in the form of both the formal and informal systems stretching from the very top of the judiciary to the local justice system in Bangladesh. The formal justice system, even though it plays the most pivotal role, has been facing huge pressure from case backlogs, which ultimately hampers the true spirit of justice. On the other hand, most people's perception towards informal justice system is also fairly poor with lack of trust due to partisan political interference, corruption, religious dogmas, and social elitism, which have made this system almost ineffective. Consequently, state-sponsored local justice system has come forward with a view to combining the both streams in a single channel in the form of restorative justice and a quorum of quasi-formal justice system aimed at ensuring and dispensing justice to the people in rural areas in an affordable and convenient manner. In line with this view, village courts have been established to redress petty civil and criminal issues. This article attempts to examine the feasibility of the present legal framework of village courts to deliver justice efficiently at the grassroots level.

Decide Your Time

Research SummaryThis study used a randomized controlled trial approach with a sample of 400 high‐risk probationers to test the hypothesis that a program incorporating principles of deterrence, graduated sanctions, and coerced abstinence would reduce recidivism rates among drug‐using offenders. Bivariate and multilevel modeling strategies were implemented. Findings revealed no discernable difference across multiple drug use, probationary, and recidivism measures between those randomized into the treatment condition and those receiving standard probation. In multivariate models, probationer age, employment status, and treatment participation improved some recidivism outcomes. Programmatic and sample characteristics are discussed regarding the lack of experimental effect.Policy ImplicationsThese findings suggest that in designing and implementing deterrence‐informed community supervision approaches, policy makers and practitioners should consider offender attributes, the addition of employment and treatment‐based programs and supports, and local justice system structures. The findings of this study fit well with other emerging models of offender supervision, in particular, those that match services and programs based on offender risks and needs and those that recognize and address the heterogeneity of the offender population in developing supervision and service plans. Swift, certain, and fair supervision approaches for individuals under community supervision do not seem to be a “one‐size‐fits‐all” strategy. Understanding for whom they work and under what conditions has not yet been determined. In the meantime, policy makers and practitioners should endeavor to understand the risks and needs of their local offender population and the community supports that are available to improve offender outcomes and increase public safety.

Bilateral investment treaties: a developing history

When an investor decides where to invest internationally, and where to set up the structure for the foreign investment, the investor’s attention is usually focused on a comparison of the tax rules, the return on investment, the local justice system and lastly the investment protection regime under international law. While attracting foreign investors, the host countries assess the investment’s sustainability, the repatriation rules, the expertise and the technology it brings and lastly the sectors in which the investment shall operate. To understand the complexities of this bargain, one needs to understand the ancestries of foreign investments and take into account the variables, along with the changing dynamics of the world economic order. This understanding of the history of foreign investment shall enable us to ascertain the reasons behind the allegedly lopsided nature of international investment laws and equip us to tackle the imminent problems effectively. It is in this backdrop that this article studies the Indian Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) regime. It was often argued that India had signed a large number of “old-style” treaties that may leave it vulnerable to challenges. India’s new model BIT represents the logical culmination of balancing of national and developmental interests especially in light of the history behind foreign investments. The new model BIT released by India’s Ministry of Finance unsurprisingly makes significant departures from the principles enshrined in earlier BITs, in order to tilt the balance back in favour of securing India’s sovereign rights, whilst promoting the developmental agenda. This article provides insights on the issues which may arise with the new Model BIT in the near future.

One Size Does Not Fit All

All states transfer certain serious or repeat juvenile offenders from the juvenile court for adjudication in the adult criminal court in the hopes that doing so will reduce offender recidivism. Yet, clear empirical data on whether transfer achieves these results has been lacking. This essay discusses the implications for policy, practice, and future research of the findings of Zane et al.'s (2016) meta-analysis of the nine methodologically sound studies of the specific deterrent effects of juvenile transfer. The central take home message of the meta-analytic findings is that transfer likely has different effects depending upon the type of juvenile offender, type of transfer mechanism used, and the punishments and interventions meted out by the juvenile and criminal court systems. Thus, future research must be conducted across jurisdictions having different transfer mechanisms and sentencing options, and be of a level of sophistication that includes a host of offense and offender variables as well as court processing/sanction type, and employ methodologies that minimize or detect potential selection biases between comparison groups. Importantly, because one size of legal processing and sanction does not fit all offenders, judges and prosecutors should base their transfer decisions not primarily upon seriousness of the charge but on an individualized and nuanced evaluation of relevant case, offender, and local justice and social service system capabilities.

An Annotated Bibliography on Justice and Legal Pluralism in Mindanao Briefing Paper No. 1: Ways for Women to Participate in Peacebuilding (Philippines)

Legal pluralism is a lived reality in Mindanao yet there are very few scholarly and practice-oriented works on the subject. The discourse on plural legal orders is a site of contestation among political interests both in Mindanao and within the Philippine state. The interests on ‘alternative’ modes of justice have been driven by both domestic and international initiatives on legal reform and access to justice. There is a need to deepen studies on legal pluralism in Mindanao, including more empirical studies on the functional administration of justice, the roles, backgrounds and motivations of justice providers and users, and the interaction or interdependency among the various normative orders within the local level and between the local and central state justice systems. The provision of effective justice among the people in Mindanao is a crucial task of post-conflict reconstruction that includes careful balancing and management of these complex plural legal systems.

A liberal-local hybrid peace project in action? The increasing engagement between the local and liberal in Timor-Leste

AbstractThe liberal peace project has dominated state-building operations since the end of the Cold War, including in Timor-Leste. However, the attempt to institutionalise the liberal peace faced significant challenges in Timor-Leste's fragmented subsistence-based society. This resulted in the creation of shallowly rooted and poorly-understood liberal state institutions that were disconnected from the majority of Timorese, who continued to follow their local sociopolitical practices. In response, the state has increasingly engaged with these local practices in order to create state institutions that make sense to the people they seek to govern. This engagement has occurred through the formalisation of local sociopolitical institutions, the recognition of local justice systems and the utilisation of local ceremonies and practices. Therefore, this article argues that a liberal-local hybrid peace project has emerged to guide state-building in Timor-Leste, which may indicate how similar projects could develop in the future.

Learning from Latvia: Adoption, Adaptation, and Evidence-Based Justice Reform

Justice reform through legal technical assistance has emerged since the 1990s as a means to support developing and transition countries to reform governance structures. To date, few studies have examined which aspects of capacity development can best support the adoption, adaptation and local acceptability of international norms within local justice systems. This paper presents the findings of a mixed methods study of 14 Latvian participants involved in a Canadian justice reform project that established the Latvian State Probation Service (SPS). It provides empirical support for the view that development actors must support organizational policies that build the individual capacity required to engage in the reform process.