Research in progress

ACCESS TO JUSTICE
A New Global Survey

Methodology

The Global Access to Justice Project developed a questionnaire providing a common framework to guide data collection and, subsequently, the preparation of National Reports. The standardized survey framework ensures a consistent approach to data collection while facilitating comparative analysis of research findings, allowing researchers from all over the world to collaborate in a shared venture in which different legal systems can be compared and measured against common performance standards.

Based on the parameters identified in the questionnaire, each National Coordinator is preparing a detailed National Report on access to justice, indicating general trends and potential developments relevant to future research. This comparative method provides an objective instrument for evaluating the degree of progress or delay of participating countries in the implementation of all dimensions of the access to justice movement; furthermore, it can also provide a yardstick for anticipating the future and planning justice system reforms.

These National Reports will be grouped on a regional geographic basis and supplemented by Regional Reports, which will describe the general evolution and latest trends of the access to justice movement in each corner of the globe. The Regional Reports will provide a deeper understanding of unique historical, economic and sociological contexts shaping each continent (Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, North America, Europe and Oceania).

To facilitate comprehensive coverage of all dimensions – both theoretical and practical – of the access to justice problematique, Global Thematic Reports will analyze specific pervasive themes of the modern access to justice movement. Inspired by the Florence Access to Justice Project’s ‘wave metaphor’, the thematic lines recollect Cappelletti’s three waves and go further to analyze subsequent and latest developments.

Finally, the General Coordinators will gather all of the information collected and draw together final conclusions of the Global Access to Justice Project in a General Report.