Microjustice Research Program
From MicroJustice
Contents |
[edit] Introduction
This is a draft of the Microjustice Research Program. It reflects some of the research topics that have been identified. We invite potential partners to further explore and develop these and other topics with us.
[edit] Microjustice
Microjustice aims to make justice accessible to the poor. A legal system is costly to operate and costly to access. Microjustice aims to deliver justice that is affordable to the poor and sustainable without permanent subsidies, in a similar way as micro-services have been developed that serve needs for credit, savings, insurance, and healthcare. It will make use of local labor and capabilities, and strives for economies of scale by following the Base of the Pyramid Approach. Goal is to develop innovative services that meet the most urgent justice needs.
[edit] Knowledge Base for Innovation
This research program supports the development of Microjustice, building on the following bodies of knowledge. What we know, is that conflicts can be resolved by applying the method of integrative/problemsolving negotiations. We also know that it is easier to come to solutions if there are objective criteria for distributive issues, in particular if these conform with commonly adhered justice principles. What is hard, is to bring people to the table to communicate and to resolve the conflict. Access to a neutral, and the threat of enforcement, are also necessary for dealing with impasse, and give protection against the abuse of power. Information technology, organization theory, micro-economics, conflict know-how, and legal theory have enormous untapped potential to tackle these problems.
[edit] Justice Needs
We also know what the most urgent justice needs are, and that these are rather similar for people in different locations and jurisdictions:
- personal security (aggression from outsiders as well as members of the community; basic human rights);
- access to the economy and public services (for which identity documents are essential);
- protection of property interests, particularly interests in land, housing, and small businesses, as well as resolving property disputes;
- protection of the interests and resolving disputes in the two most important forms of relationships in which people invest: their families and their employment; investments in these relationships may lead to mutual dependency, and sometimes to power imbalances;
- other justice needs relate to interests and conflicts in neighbor and community relationships, business relationships, and consumer interests.
[edit] Possible Microjustice Approach
[edit] General
Microjustice takes a bottom-up, client centered perspective. It focuses on products (standardized legal services) for registration issues and for resolving differences.
Microjustice aims to use three tools for delivering justice in a cost-efficient and reliable way:
- Information on norms and processes via the internet, aimed at self-help.
- Local facilitators, who render additional support.
- Back up by a Microjustice Program, with more sophisticated legal assistance if necessary.
[edit] Registration Issues
For registration issues, information about the way they can be obtained, the most common complications, and ways to deal with these, is made available through the internet. Facilitators, working for a fee, help with more complicated issues. The MJ Program develops relationships with local authorities in such a way that clients, authorities, facilitators, and the MJ Program can gain from speedy and low-cost delivery of documents that sufficiently serve the justice needs of the clients.
[edit] Dispute Resolution
For resolving disputes, the following five elements of a basic dispute system are central in product development:
- The parties should meet and talk;
- They have to find a way to communicate constructively about the facts, their views, their emotions, their interests and possible solutions;
- They need guidance from objective criteria relating to distributive and retributive justice in case they disagree about solutions (suggestions about how much each party will own, has to pay, will be punished, or has to deliver)
- If they cannot agree, a neutral decision-maker decides for them;
- Once an outcome is obtained, it should be observed (enforcement).
The basic direction for product development will be as follows. MJ Facilitators will support the parties to the dispute with the first two elements. A website will provide transparency as to the objective criteria that may guide the outcome. This website will reflect the "going rates of justice" at the place of the dispute, as well as in other locations where similar disputes occur. This information will influence the parties, and enable them to reach an outcome. It will also support local neutral 'judges' (informal dispute resolution mechanisms) to reach outcomes, as well as enhance enforcement. Possibly, Microjustice will also start to develop such neutral dispute resolution mechanisms if they are not available yet, in cooperation with local authorities. For enforcement, mechanisms relying on the reputation of the parties may have to be developed.
[edit] Added Value
[edit] The Value of Justice
Econometric research has shown that justice (the rule of law, as well as access to justice) is key to economic and human development. Institutional economists and microeconomists have no difficulty to explain this. Personal security is a matter of observing human rights, but there is much more. Protecting oneself, and taking precautions, is very time-consuming and costly. Without protection of property interests, and interests in relationships, people will not feel safe to invest in their homes, in their families, in their businesses, in their future, and in their children. Fair and low cost resolution of disputes diminishes transaction costs and protects the poor against exploitation and abuse of power.
[edit] The Value of Microjustice Research
Conflicts have been studied extensively by psychologists and sociologists. The next step is dispute system design, combining insights from social sciences and the practical experience from legal systems into a coherent framework for designing dispute systems. Moreover, the links between specific types of legal protection and economic development are not yet fully understood. The market for justice, and the delivery models, has hardly been studied.
Microjustice, through its focus on low cost delivery and affordability, is likely to reveal the basic structure of dispute systems and the way access to justice is delivered. So, this research program is likely to lead to theoretical advances in these areas. In other aspects, the method will be application of existing theories about conflict and delivery of professional services. Designing specific products for specific justice needs will be a matter of action research and applied innovation methodologies. Measuring access to justice (see below) will yield a wealth of data regarding the costs and quality of paths to justice, as experienced by the users of the legal system.
[edit] Possible partnerships
Microjustice offers numerous opportunities for organizations and individuals to get involved. Partnerships for funding, expertise and human resources are warmly welcomed. Microjustice offers a great opportunity to take corporate social responsibility. Together with ngo's and other local partners, Microjustice can start to make a difference right away. For some projects, specific needs are identified. These will be mentioned in each project description..
[edit] Dispute System Design
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[edit] Coordination Problems
Disputes are coordination problems. Insights from transaction costs economics can be helpful for designing dispute systems (Williamson). Key is that parties protect themselves against opportunism; mechanisms are markets, hierarchies and, hybrids. Markets reflect dispute solution by negotiation, whereas the legal/court system resembles hierarchies. Which of the mechanisms to choose depends on whether trust or opportunism, as reflected in performance ambiguity and goal congruency (Patterson) is the underlying assumption for human behavior? Projected output is a set of recommendations for developing dispute systems and contributions to the transaction costs economics.
[edit] Core Issues for Dispute System Design
Buiding on the existing literature on dispute system design, and on research from the social sciences, 12 basic issues are identified that the neutral designer of a dispute system should consider. For each of these issues, framed as a question, a literature review yields the state of the art. Output: the first handbook on dispute system design.
[edit] Online Dispute Resolution Tools
Each of the five basic elements of a dispute resolution system can be supported by internet technology. Internet can support communication and negotiation, make information about objective criteria available (see above), and support processes for choosing independent arbiters, courts, or other neutrals. Enforcement can be enhanced by making use of reputation mechanisms. Output: Specifications of tools that support dispute resolution. Prototypes of such tools. Tools that are developed together with dispute resolution providers: co-development. (Already partially funded by ITER, Layla project, several customers such as Legal Aid Council, Insurance companies).
[edit] Objective criteria
If objective criteria to guide outcomes of conflicts about distributive issues are available, this really supports disputants. Suitable objective criteria help to reduce costs of dispute resolution and have a positive effect on the fairness of outcomes. Output: Knowledge of the function and position of objective criteria in disputes. Characteristics of objective criteria that have a positive effect on fairness of outcomes and that reduce the costs for dispute resolution.
[edit] Collecting objective criteria
Although not abundantly available, in some cases and in some countries, objective criteria are already known. This project aims to collect such objective criteria. The output is objective criteria for property, family and consumer issues in the Netherlands, Bolivia, Serbia and Malawi.
[edit] Developing objective criteria
In other cases, objective criteria are not transparent. The texts of legal codes may be too vague, case law may be to technical or contradictory. This project focusses on developing ways to make objective criteria transparent in such cases. What are the 'going rates of justice'? Output: methodologies for developing suitable objective criteria.
[edit] Delivering objective criteria
Objective criteria can be delivered on a global web interface (MicrojusticeNormsandProcesses.com). Combined with standardization, this makes it possible to compare locally applied objective criteria with those that are applied elsewhere. Such transparency can be an important catalyst for bottom up reform and creates incentives for suppliers to improve processes. Output: A web interface for delivering suitable objective criteria in such a way that solutions for similar problems can easily be compared across jurisdictions and locations.
[edit] Needs
IT expertise, legal experts with knowledge of 'going rates', students who want to write their thesis on this subject; local partners for collecting and developing objective criteria.
[edit] Understanding the Market for Justice
First analysis ever of the delivery of justice through the lens of market failure and government failure theory. Five core elements of the justice system can each be provided by the market (parties themselves, legal services providers, publishers of legal information, media, ADR providers) and by government intervention (courts, legislators, public legal education programs). Output: insights and recommendations as to optimal regulation of legal services markets, intervention policies and programs in the area of access to justice by governments and NGO's. (Partially funded by Tilburg University, first results available)
[edit] Understanding and Improving Justice for the Poor
This part of the program will be implemented by students who write their master thesis on these topics and is supported by the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Learning Laboratory Benelux and companies that take part in this. The idea behind BoP thinking is that business models are created to tackle poverty alleviation through innovative, entrepreneurial means that are socially and environmentally sensitive. This could happen through job creation for the poor, but the poor should also be viewed as capable partners and resources for technology development and innovation. Essential to acknowledge is that this is a long-term process in business model innovation based on partnerships and need-based product and service development as articulated by the poor themselves. In order to built an effective BoP ecosystem, local resources are required.
[edit] Base of the Pyramid Protocol and Microjustice
The Base of the Pyramid Protocol describes a method for co-developing products for the poor. First world technology and business practices are integrated with methods for establishing third world needs and building on the capabilities of these customers. This methodology can be applied to, and adjusted for, Microjustice products and delivery models. Output: Protocol for developing Microjustice products and insights on suitability of Base of Pyramid Model for services in the justice sector.
[edit] Mass Customization of Professional Services
Product development often proceeds from homogeneous products to differentiation for specific groups of customers, and sometimes to individualized products. For professional services, the process is from individualized services, towards standardisation. This body of knowledge can be applied to Microjustice, and Microjustice (as well as other microservices) will serve as an example of mass customization processes. Modularity will be one of the key concepts used. Output will be a number of recommendations for reaching efficiency in the supply chain for justice products.
[edit] Distribution Systems for Justice Products
Distribution of legal services traditionally follows the model of one lawyer rendering legal services to a client, and one judge(court) solving an individual case. This project looks at alternative delivery models, and looks for business model innovation in this area. Key issues are the possibilities of microfranchising and how to use local expertise, labor and infrastructure: building on the capabilities of the poor themselves. Output: recommendations for distribution of Microjustice products/services and insights regarding business model innovation.
[edit] Product Development
[edit] Developing Registration Products
[edit] Needs assessment and capabilities assessment in Bolivia
Many of the problems people face are problems of everyday life. Especially when it is too distant, people may not link these problems to the justice systems. Microjustice builds on local needs and capabilities. Using the Base of the Pyramid Protocol, these will be investigated and mapped out. Output: building blocks for Microjustice Products. This project is partially funded.
[edit] Developing Conflict Products
Application of theoretical knowledge about dispute resolution system design to concrete contexts and justice needs. Applied research and action research on the basis of the five core elements of dispute resolution in three different areas. Output: First versions of microjustice Property Protection Products, Family Dispute Products, and Consumer Complaint Products. First versions of master products (standardization).
[edit] Needs assessment and capabilities assessment in Malawi
This assessment takes place in the slums of Blantyre and is executed in close cooperation with the organization FAQ. Output: building blocks for Microjustice Products. SWOT analysis for Microjustice Malawi.
[edit] Measuring Access to Justice
A methodology for measuring the costs and quality of 'paths to justice' is developed. The measurement tools enables evaluation of court procedures, services of ADR-providers, assistance of legal aid providers, and other access to justice programs. Comparison across jurisdictions and across paths to justice for different justice needs is possible. Output: Measurement tools. Pilot studies. Comparative data on performance of systems that give access to justice. (Already partially funded by a consortium of Tilburg University, Utrecht University, and the Hague Institute for the Internationalization of Law; first results have been published and are available).
[edit] Needs
Partnerships for pilotstudies; measurement experts, especially with epertise in building indicators and indexes.
