Affordable Justice

Written in response to the failure of the legal system to meet people's needs for affordable justice, this step-by-step guide provides information on how to settle disputes out of court. Designed for individuals as well as businesses of all sizes, this book contains practical information and advice for anyone who wants to avoid the nightmare of a legal battle. It gives readers the tools to negotiate a fair settlement and avoid the high cost of court justice. This practical guide discusses how to settle disputes using mediation and/or arbitration and resolve divorce battles in ways that minimize conflict.

Unfulfilled legal needs are at a tipping point in much of the Canadian justice system. The Justice Crisis assesses what is and isn’t working in efforts to strengthen a fundamental right of democratic citizenship: access to civil and family justice. Contributors to this wide-ranging overview of recent empirical research address key issues: the extent and cost of unmet legal needs; the role of public funding; connections between legal and social exclusion among vulnerable populations; the value of new legal pathways; the provision of justice services beyond the courts and lawyers; and the need for a culture change within the justice system.

Featuring contributions by leading Canadian and international scholars, practitioners, and members of the judiciary, this multidisciplinary collection draws on scholarship in the fields of law, social science, and public policy. There is a particular emphasis on family law, consumer law, and employment law, as these are the areas where research has indicated that unmet legal needs are highest.

What happens when justice is delayed? It is denied, certainly. That answer, while a truism, is also incomplete, for it does not describe the depth, intensity, and complexity of the impact of delay in Indian courts. Several questions may be considered in this context: How does an undertrial prisoner bring up her child in prison? How does delay in disposal of a claim affect a company's business? Who suffers when land acquisition is mired in litigation-landowner or the public? Does involvement in prolonged litigation detract from a government's primary purpose? Will appointing more judges solve the problem of delay and rising pendency? Are amendments to law and policy working to mitigate delays? To answer these and other questions, this volume of essays-to which lawyers, economists, sociologists, researchers, and a High Court judge have contributed-goes beyond understanding the price of delay in terms of lost time and money. Instead, it examines the effects of delay at multiple levels-individual, institutional, societal, and systemic-through critical data analyses. It also presents innovative use of cross-disciplinary methods to understand what causes delay, how its impact can be measured, and how its effects can be anticipated and avoided. Targeted systemic interventions are crucial to minimise the adverse impact of delays, so that justice is neither delayed nor frustrated, or, indeed, reduced to mere illusion!

This volume presents an overview of the principal features of the legacy of International Tribunals and an assessment of their impact on the International Criminal Court and on the review process of the Rome Statute. It illustrates the foundation of a system of international criminal law and justice through the case-law and practices of the UN ad hoc tribunals and other internationally assisted tribunals and courts. These examples provide advice for possible future developments in international criminal procedure and law, with particular reference to their impact on the ICC and on national jurisdictions. The review process of the Rome Statute is approached as a step of a review process to provide a perspective of the developments in the field since the Statute’s adoption in 1998.

The environmental justice movement, an organized social and political force in America in the '80s, is a global phenomenon today as activists worldwide try to understand the relationship between environment, race/ethnicity and social inequality. This volume examines domestic and international environmental issues.