Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.
To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser.
…
11 pages
1 file
" What is the origin of inequality among men? Is it authorized by natural law? For how shall we know the source of inequality between men, if we do not begin by knowing mankind? " Looking at the animal kingdom, where men belong, there is a natural inequality and stratification. Animals live chiefly for self-preservation and survival. The stronger animals control and dominate other weaker animals in the jungle. This is bolstered by Darwin's theory on survival of the fittest and the elimination of the unfit. Nonetheless, the history of human civilization points to an evolution of men from savage beasts to gentle scholars. The change in times brought the concepts of justice, fairness and equality to human consciousness. Laws promoting these concepts are enacted to correct the natural existence of inequality among men. One of these laws is providing the right to access to justice by the poor. In the early 20 th century, there is a challenge to the legal profession to consider it an obligation to see that justice as law is accessible to all, without regard to ability to pay. Without access to law, the system not only robs the poor of their only protection but it places in the hands of their oppressors the most powerful and ruthless weapon ever invented (Reginald Herber Smith, Justice and the Poor, 1919). We can end the existing denial of justice to the poor if we can secure an administration of justice wherein law shall be accessible to every person no matter how humble. This challenge has first been answered in our country when General Order No 58 was issued in 1900 which authorized the courts to assign counsel to defend persons accused in criminal cases. Because one clear consequence of inequality is inequality in the field of criminal justice. In a criminal prosecution, the accused finds himself face to face with the State and all of its resources of wealth and power. It is for this reason that the law takes a special interest in the poor when brought before the bar of justice to answer for a crime. "Naught is more hostile to a city than a despot; where he is, there are first no laws common to all, but one man is tyrant, in whose keeping and in his alone the law resides, and in that case equality is at an end. But when the laws are written down, rich and poor alike have equal justice, and it is open to the weaker to use the same language to the prosperous when he is reviled by him, and the weaker prevails over the stronger if he has justice on his side"(Euripides). The right of the poor to access to justice is guaranteed and protected by the Philippine Constitution and statutes. Our Constitution is pro-poor. It is a promoter of social justice. Inspired by the Philippines' social justice policy under Article XIII, Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution as well as by the State policies under Article II, Sections 9 and 10 of the 1987 Constitution, it is a matter of right for every Filipino to have access to justice when the State declares that free access to the courts and quasi-judicial bodies and adequate
Respulica Litereria, 2006
Beginning in the early 1990’s, Ethiopia has been experiencing a major ground swell of social, economic, cu-tural and political changes. While the movement towards fundamental political change is remarkable, there are certain formidable challenges that will make the transition to a stable, democratic and pluralist system of governance very difficult. The system of justice in Ethiopia is generally characterised by delays in the dispensation of justice, lack of institutional capacity in law enforcement, court and inefficient system of law enforcement and congestion. Many have asserted that it highly unlikely that the “rule of law orthodoxy,” yet pursued by very powerful forces of international development and peace making. Within the Ethiopian context, the justice reform focuses on capacity for building for the judiciary, law reform and law enforcement. The state-centred approach concentrates on law reform and governance institutions, to build business-friendly legal systems that presumably spur poverty alle-viation, good governance and public safety. The challenges of “the paradigm are not these economic and political goals, per se, but rather its questionable assumptions, unproven impact, and insufficient attention to the legal needs of the disadvantaged”. Legal empowerment is a phrase used to define the use of legal regimes to boast the Poor’s access to resources through rights-based development; grounded in grassroots needs and activities; involving government wherever possible. “The international aid field of law and development focuses too much on law, lawyers, and state institutions, and too little on development, the poor, and civil society. In fact, it is doubtful whether “rule of law orthodoxy,” the dominant paradigm pursued by many international agencies, should be the central means for integrating law and development. The rule of law orthodoxy embraced by much of the international community should not be confused with the rule of law itself. In the view of the World Bank, while defined in var-ious ways, the rule of law prevails where the government itself is bound by the law, every person in society is treat-ed equally under the law, the human dignity of each individual is recognised and protected by law, and justice is accessible to all. The paper hence augurs on building a legal empowerment programme that will require a mix of features, reforming the justice system for the poor, designing symmetry in rule of law and legal empowerment of the poor, networking scope to develop communities of practice, reaching the poorest of the poor and capacity building targets for legal empowerment of the poor Key words: Legal empowerment, Access to Justice, Rule of Law, rule of law orthodoxy, poverty.
The Age of Human Rights Journal
Poverty is the outcome of the unequal distribution of resources reinforced by a legal, political, economic, and cultural model and is the central expression of social injustice. The impact of economic inequality on humanity’s quality of life can be better explained from the perspective of basic needs and their ties with rights, the unequal opportunities and their connection with the degree of autonomy that situated individuals effectively enjoy, and the effectiveness of public policy and the responsibilities and duties of the governments. This article discusses the close (and not visible) ties between justice, law, and poverty, emphasizing that the current legal framework -even the human rights system- legitimizes an unequal status quo that prevents real access to and enjoyment of rights and freedoms for people living in poverty conditions. Moreover, it also endangers democratic stability.
Law Society, Department of Law, Aligarh Muslim University, Murshidabad Centre (W.B.), 2018
Article 21 is to meet the following conditions: (i) There must be valid law, and (ii) The valid law must lay down just, fair and reasonable procedure. Justice P.N. Bhagwati declared that the expression 'personal liberty' in Article 21 is of the widest amplitude and it covers variety of right who go to constitute personal liberty and some of them raised the status of distinct Fundamental Rights and given additional protection under Article 14 and 19. Some of the important rights have been recognized by the judiciary under Article 21 are enumerated as under: Right to Free Legal Aid The concept of Legal Aid to the indigent has its roots in the well-settled principle of natural justice 'audi alteram partem' (hear the other side). Even in primitive society, the leader would hear the parties before passing his judgment. In today's society where there is large number of Acts, Rules and Regulations with complex procedure, the assistance of a lawyer is necessary for ensuring justice. In a welfare state it is obligations of the state to ensure to the citizen justice according to law. It is crystal clear that due to poverty people are not in position to knock the doors of courts for getting justice from judiciary, so sometime even in genuine cases people are to suffer unnecessarily in prison. In M.H. Hoskot vs. state of Maharashtra 8 , the Supreme Court has emphasized that the lawyer's services constitute an ingredient of fair procedure to a prisoner who is seeking his liberation through the court procedure. In Hussainara Khatoon case 9 , Bhagwati, J., has observed: "Now, a procedure which does not make available legal services to an accused person who is too poor to afford a lawyer and who would, therefore, have to go through the trial without legal assistance, cannot possibly be regarded as 'reasonable, fair and justice". In the Constitution of India there is implicit in Article 142 read with Article 21 and 39A, the state is to pay the amount to lawyer fixed by the court. Article 39A equal justice and free legal aid was inserted by the Constitution 44th
De Jure, 2020
While the constitutional imperatives related to access to justice, the legislative framework of Legal Aid SA (LASA), the regulations for the attorneys' profession and the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 suggest that citizens are adequately catered for in accessing justice, the lived reality for poor persons is that this is not substantively attained. The formal framework creates unfulfilled expectations. First year law students at a Law faculty were required to report on their observations in the lower courts and on an interview with a litigant or official at the court visited. The focus of the assignment was on access to justice: identifying barriers and making recommendations for enhancing access to justice. The observations of the novice law students in the courts speak to the experiences of indigent and middle-class persons seeking to access the courts in largely urban areas. Ethical clearance and informed consent of the participants was obtained in accordance with the requirements of the Ethics Research Committee of the Law faculty. What is evident is that the achievement of access to justice is impeded by a number of factors, including socioeconomic inequalities, systemic inefficiencies caused by poor administration at the courts and an unmet demand for legal services. It will require the allocation of significant financial and human resources to overcome the obstacles preventing those who cannot afford the cost of private legal representation from effectively accessing the legal system. The aim of the paper is to review the position pertaining to access to justice in the various regulatory sources and then to consider the obstacles identified by the students related to 'law in practice' in the lower courts of South Africa. Finally, the paper proposes some recommendations to address the observed impediments to accessing justice by the poor.
The Indonesian Journal of International Clinical Legal Education, 2021
Providing legal assistance to the poor continues by the government to realize legal access and justice for all levels of society. Several regulations regarding legal aid have been issued by the state through the law and implementing regulations, but the fact is that the provision of legal aid is not yet effective. This causes a lack of access to law and justice for the poor. The effectiveness of providing legal aid by the government needs to be assessed to see how effective the legal aid program provided by the government is to realize legal access and justice for the poor. Therefore, criticism and advice should be given to the government in order to optimize legal assistance in order to achieve legal access and justice for all levels of society.
Research Gate
Beginning in the early 1990s, Africa has been experiencing a major ground swell of political changes, but there are certain formidable challenges for legal empowerment that will make the transition to a stable and pluralist system of governance difficult. African countries have adopted the legal systems of colonial legal regimes, while legal philosophies underpin the necessity for grounding law making in social constructs, natural law, analytic jurisprudence, legal positivism, normative jurisprudence, legal realism, etc., founded on the beliefs, aspirations, and common vision of society. Hence, disconnect between cultural values and law-making processes is vital. Hence, building a legal empowerment programme will require a mix of features in prioritising the needs and concerns of the disadvantaged, emphasising civil society, including legal services as well as communitybased groups and using whatever forums (often not the courts) the poor can best access in specific situations; encouraging a supportive rather than lead role for lawyers. Moreover, these should entail cooperating with and pressuring government using community organising, developing paralegal resources, integrating with mainstream socioeconomic development work; and building on community-level operations to enable the poor to inform or influence systemic change in laws, policies, and state institutions The objective is to press for a more sceptical stance and a better balance in ROL. The best intentions of donors and officials notwithstanding, state institutions often are burdened by counterproductive incentives and constraints that outweigh or outlast efforts to ameliorate them through learning and knowledge management. The institutional competence and preparedness of legal empowerment to operationalise the strategic objectives and reforms necessary to develop transparent legal and institutional arrangements in which the poor have confidence, can access justice, and which will generally contribute to a culture of fairness, equity and justice. Citizens must participate successfully in a transparent reform process to address their priorities, needs and concerns to be heard and incorporated into legal documents using various participatory tools. Dispute resolution mechanisms must support poor people's access to rights in affordable and locally appropriate ways. Special considerations to be given to indigenous peoples' issues: customary norms, traditions, legal structures, and barriers that preclude them from accessing the formal legal and judicial structures. Finally, revision of the legal system through a legal/anthropological study of law is imperative, as the idea that law has its own 'truth' has been 'used to deny sociological perspectives to provide understanding of law as doctrine'. Keywords: legal empowerment, access to justice, rule of law, jurisprudence,
The Catholic lawyer, 2017
The Role of Lawyers in Access to Justice
Understanding access to justice in any jurisdiction requires identification of factors which create the dynamic in which access functions. Jurisdictions can have factors in common, but each jurisdiction has a dynamic of its own. Without an understanding of these factors and how they interact, proposed improvements in access may not accomplish much. Viewing access to justice in this way arguably allows for a clearer vision of positive change, because it acknowledges why particular changes may be difficult or unlikely. Establishing access to justice dynamics in sufficient complexity is also necessary for comparative understandings across jurisdictions, but comparative insight requires reference to an expanded set of jurisdictions, including Asia and beyond. i. introduction We are to a disturbing degree at the mercy of our time and place. At the time of writing, a worldwide pandemic has served as a reminder of this. Resources such as money, education, and social capital can moderate some vagaries, but conditions such as political autocracy and instability, hatreds various and evergreen, and inequities of different sorts render us vulnerable. Law may provide relief for some of life's troubles. In the resolution of legal disputes, law has the potential to provide justice, 1 if it is not derailed by corruption, undermined by systemic underfunding, or rendered inaccessible. People must have access to justice to get legal relief, but their access should be equal, 'so that the relative advantage or disadvantage of one citizen vis-à-vis another does not determine legal outcomes'. 2 Access to justice is therefore central to the rule of law. 3 Accessibility is the focus of this volume. Simply stated, access to justice is the state's obligation to ensure that all members of a community can access law and dispute resolution equally and
The problems of the poor to access justice are legendary. They are well known to all of us here who, in one way or the other, have been involved with legal aid. I could rehearse them all over again, perhaps more eloquently, perhaps with greater detail and examples, but, I ask myself, for what purpose and why? Does poverty disappear by singing about it? Or, to give a better analogy, does charity eradicate poverty? After all, they have lived together as Siamese twins over the ages. One cannot exist without the other. What Marx said about religion, applies mutatis mutandis to charity. It comforts the rich and massages their consciences, while dampening the anger of the poor. And lo! behold, we continue to have more rich, more poor and more charity! When we were still students, and still revolutionary, a generation ago, our militant organization called the University Students African Revolutionary Front (USARF) decided to put a stop to the tradition called Rag Day inherited straight from Oxbridge.
XXX Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala,, 2016
Revista Acervo, 2024
The World Humanities Report, 2022
Actuators, 2020
Fotografias da aula: visualidades de uma didática legal, 2024
Climate Dynamics, 2015