scholarly journals Clinique ToGo: Changing Legal Practice in One African Nation in Six Days

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Stephen Rosenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
State Department ◽  
Law School ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Law And Development ◽  
Bar Association ◽  
Development Movement ◽  
Law Professors

<p>With honour and humility I accepted an invitation from the U.S. State Department to participate as a technical advisor in a weeklong rule of law2 seminar in Togo, with attorneys, judges, law professors and students. My mission was to explain various models for delivery of free legal services and assist in developing proposals for establishing a bar association pro bono3 programme in conjunction with the nation’s principal law school.</p><p>When the State Department first invited me to participate in its speaker specialist programme, I admit that for me it was all about having a glimpse of an otherwise inaccessible part of the world and the attendant cultural, professional and intellectual exchange. Only after my initial programme visit did I become familiar with the concept of “rule of law” (l’état de droit), as well as the related concepts of access to justice and the law and development movement. This was to be the focus of my journey to Togo.</p>

scholarly journals Pro Bono: What's in it for law students? The students' perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Paul McKeown
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Student Participation ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Influential Factor ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Motivating Factors ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Pro Bono

<p>In England and Wales, there is an increasing need for the provision of pro bono legal services.  Law students may be a resource that can help fill the access to justice gap, whilst at university and onwards in their future careers.  Whilst some students are intrinsically motivated towards altruistic behaviour, many are not.  This article will consider what motivates students to undertake pro bono work whilst at law school.</p><p>The article will explore the range of intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors for student participation in pro bono programmes and consider how students can be encouraged to engage in such activities.  The article will also consider whether exposure to pro bono experience can instil a public service ethos in students.</p>In conclusion, the article will highlight experience as an influential factor in encouraging initial participation in pro bono work but also instilling a willingness to undertake pro bono work in the future.

scholarly journals The Profession(s)’ Engagements with LawTech: Narratives and Archetypes of Future Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 6-26
Author(s):  
Lisa Webley ◽  
John Flood ◽  
Julian Webb ◽  
Francesca Bartlett ◽  
Kate Galloway ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Descriptive Account ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Professional Field ◽  
Legal Professional

This article argues that there are three narratives to technology’s role in augmenting, disrupting or ending the current legal services environment—each of which gives life to particular legal professional archetypes in how lawyers react to LawTech. In tracing these influential narratives and associated archetypes, we map the evolving role of LawTech, the legal profession and legal services delivery. The article concludes by proffering a further narrative of technology’s role in law known as ‘adaptive professionalism’, which emphasises the complex, contextual nature of the legal professional field. Through this normative rather than descriptive account it is suggested that the profession may access the benefits of technological developments while holding on to essential notions of ethical conduct, access to justice and the rule of law.

scholarly journals Should the US Eliminate Entry Barriers to the Practice of Law? Perspectives Shaped by Industry Deregulation

2016 ◽  
Vol 106 (5) ◽  
pp. 171-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford Winston ◽  
Quentin Karpilow
Keyword(s):  
Legal Profession ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Network Industries ◽  
Entry Barriers ◽  
Barriers To Entry ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Us ◽  
Bar Association ◽  
Competitive Forces

States' requirements that lawyers obtain a license to practice law, as well as American Bar Association (ABA) regulations of legal practice, constitute barriers to entry to the legal profession. In this paper, we argue that eliminating entry barriers in legal services would generate benefits that are similar to those resulting from deregulating U.S. network industries (i.e., transportation, communications, and energy.) Specifically, prices would fall as competition from incumbent firms and new entrants intensifies; in the long run, competitive forces and operating freedom would incentivize firms to produce innovations that significantly benefit consumers and the broader economy.

Theories of Law and Development

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 421-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Harding
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Current Phase ◽  
Judicial Reform ◽  
Law And Development ◽  
Modes Of Operation ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Development Movement

Abstract This article takes a long look at the law and development movement and its attempts to entrench the rule of law in developing countries in Asia via the means of legal technical assistance (LTA) designed to reform judiciaries and judicial bodies. It does so with special reference to Myanmar, being the latest instance of LTA in Asia. Currently there are more than 30 organisations working directly on rule of law LTA in Myanmar. Such efforts ought to represent the state of the art after half a century of LTA. The article looks at the trajectory of law and development since the 1960s, noting that the phases of law and development have led us through inaugural, critical, revivalist “moments” to a “post-moment” that appears to be pluralistic, and contextually nuanced. It notes that judicial reform has always featured in LTA through all of these “moments”, and discusses whether or in what circumstances judicial reform is the most desirable or justifiably prioritised approach to rule of law LTA. It concludes that in the current phase of law and development too much emphasis is placed on judicial reform, explaining why this is so and why other approaches could be more profitable. The argument leads to a conclusion that we might now usefully identify a “Burmese” moment in law and development—one in which we realise that one size will never fit all cases, that law and development is multi-faceted and needs to be broken down into distinct modes of operation. In this dispensation, the opportunity is offered to secure real and ongoing gains in rule of law technology.

scholarly journals Optimism, Skepticism, and Access to Justice

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-513
Author(s):  
David Luban
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Aid ◽  
Legal Services Corporation ◽  
Bar Association ◽  
The U.S ◽  
People Today

It has been more than twenty years since the American Bar Association published its pioneering study of the legal needs of low-income Americans. The bottom lines of this study are often cited: first, that each year, half of low-income people faced legal needs, defined as “situations, events, or difficulties any member of the household faced . . . . [that] raised legal issues.” Second, 70% of the legal needs of lowincome people went unmet. Twenty years later, it appears that nothing has changed, except for the worse. For one thing, the budget of the Legal Services Corporation (“LSC”) is 40% smaller today—in constant dollars—than it was when the Legal Needs Study appeared. In fact, the LSC’s 2015 budget was 10% lower than it was just four years earlier. Today there are about 4,300 LSC-funded lawyers—about the same as in 1994, the year of the ABA’s legal needs survey. This actually improved over the intervening years, when the number of LSC-funded lawyers dropped significantly. But the number of people eligible for legal aid has grown by 11 million since 1994 to a rather staggering 61 million people today, almost a fifth of the U.S. population.

scholarly journals Redefining and Analyzing “Development” and the Role and Rule of Law

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Crawford
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Law School ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Development Studies ◽  
Special Volume ◽  
Law And Development ◽  
Development Institute ◽  
The Law

AbstractThis article introduces a series of articles prepared in connection with an April 2015 conference jointly sponsored by the Law & Development Institute and the Payson Center for International Development at Tulane University Law School. The introduction first surveys the uncertain and chaotic terrain of current and competing definitions of development and then introduces the articles in this special volume, identifying common themes and differences. In the process, the introduction suggests, law and development studies present great promise to provide greater coherence to development studies and practice going ahead, providing the approach is pluralist and inclusive.

Imperfect Duty: Lawyers’ Obligation to Foster Access to Justice

2008 ◽  
pp. 107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Woolley
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Policy Response ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Imperfect Duty ◽  
Special Obligation ◽  
Legal Market ◽  
Integral Component

Access to justice is an integral component of the legal system. However, the question of upon whose shoulders the obligation of ensuring this access should fall has been widely debated. In particular, do lawyers, as part ofthe legalprofession, have a special obligation to foster access to justice? In this article, the author explores the legitimacy of various arguments with respect to whether lawyers should carry this obligation to a greater extent than other members of society. The author begins by critiquing the traditional arguments related to imposing such an obligation on lawyers — for instance, the refined monopoly arguments. She then goes on to critically consider an alternative argument: that imperfections in the marketfor legal services justify the existence of a special obligation for lawyers. An examination of the limitations of this justification follows. Overall, the author concludes that while the arguments arising from imperfections in the legal market offer the best justification for seeing lawyers have a special obligation to ensure access tojustice, the claims from the argument are modest ones, and any policy response in furtherance of such an obligation should be similarly modest.

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