This book offers insight on access to justice from rural areas in internationally comparable contexts to highlight the diversity of experiences within, and across rural areas globally.
It looks at the fundamental questions for people's lives raised by the issue of access to justice as well as the rule of law. It highlights a range of social, geographic and cultural issues which impact the way rural communities experience the justice system throughout the world with chapters on Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Kenya, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Syria, Turkey, the USA and Wales.
Each chapter explores three questions:
1. How do people experience the institutions of justice in rural areas and how does this rural experience differ to an urban experience?
2. What impact have changes in policy had on the justice system in rural areas, and have rural and urban areas been affected in different ways?
3. What impact does the law have on people's lives in rural areas and what would rural communities like to be better understood about their experience of the justice system?
By bringing in the voices and experiences of those who are often ignored or side-lined by justice systems, this book will set out an agenda for ensuring social justice in legal systems with a focus on protecting marginalised groups.
Author(s): Daniel Newman, Faith Gordon
Publisher: Hart Publishing
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 253
City: Oxford
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of contributors
1. Rural Access to Justice
2. A Survey of Policy Responses to the Rural Attorney Shortage in the United States
I. The Rural Attorney Shortage by the Numbers
II. Legal Aid Lawyers
III. The Criminal Justice System
IV. State-Specific Initiatives to Increase Rural Practice
V. Conclusion
3. Alcohol Laws, Rural Communities and Access to Justice in Kenya
I. Introduction
II. Criminalisation of Alcoholism in Kenya
III. An Overview of Alcoholism
IV. Cultural Support for Alcohol Use in Kenya
V. Prevalence and Current Trends of Alcoholism in Rural Kenya
VI. Cultural Consequences of Criminalisation of Alcohol Use in Kenya
VII. Conclusions
4. Accessibility to Justice for Rural Livestock Farmers in Selected Provinces of South Africa: Rural Communities and the Justice System
I. Introduction
II. An Overview of Rural Experiencesof Access to Justice in South Africa
III. Magistrates’ and Traditional Court Approachesto Stock Theft Cases: Comparative Views
IV. Conclusions
5. Why Doesn’t a Mother Whose Son was Murdered Seek Justice? A Critical Approach to the Relationship between Socio-Cultural Structure and Access to Justice in Rural Communities by Reconstructing the Sabahattin Ali’s Kağnı (The Oxcart) Short Story
I. Introduction
II. A Murder in the Village
III. Conclusion
6. Rethinking Access to Justice for Indigenous Peoples
I. Introduction
II. The Concept of Access to Justice in an Indigenous Context
III. Identifying First Nations Legal Needs in Regional, Rural and Remote Areas
IV. A Local Study: The Barkly Region
V. Improving Indigenous Access to Legal Services in Rural and Remote Areas
VI. Expanding the Parameters of Access to Justice Through Modifying Existing Systems
VII. Encompassing Non-Legal Strategies to Improve Justice Outcomes
VIII. Conclusion
7. Barriers to Access to Justice for Members of the Traveller Community: Rediscrimination within the Equality System
I. Introduction
II. Context and Approach
III. Travellers – From Rural Roots to Marginalised Present
IV. Barriers to Justice for Travellers
V. 'Rediscrimination' within the Equality Framework
VI. Conclusion
8. Older Victims, Legal Need and Access to Justice in Rural Communities in Northern Ireland
I. Introduction
II. Older People as Victims of Crime
III. Older People and Access to Justice
IV. 'Hidden' and 'Neglected': Older People in Rural Communities
V. Need for Tailored Reform and Resources
VI. Conclusion
9. Litigants in Person and Rural Family Justice in England and Wales
I. Introduction
II. Litigants in Person and Family Justice
III. Sourcing Support: Advice Deserts
IV. Sporadic Support: Is it Enough?
V. Conclusion
10. Overcoming Geographic Barriers: Towards a Framework for Facilitating Legal Service Delivery in Rural Communities in Canada
I. Introduction
II. Rurality and Access to Justice in Canada
III. Facilitating Access to Justice Through Mobile Service Delivery in Rural Areas
IV. Conclusion
11. Conceptualising Rural Access to Justice as Supply Chains Primed for Transformation
I. Introduction
II. Supply Chain Framework
III. Delivering Future Lawyers to Rural Legal Practice
IV. Delivering Legal Needs to Legal Resolution
V. Nexus between the Rural Justice Supply Chains
VI. Conclusion
12. 'Restorative What?' Young People's Experiences of Accessing Justice in Rural Syria
I. Introduction
II. Access to Justice in Syria
III. Community Alternatives
IV. Wisdom Has No White Hair
V. Conclusion
13. A Retrospective on Rural Legal Service Provision: Lessons Emerging from International Research
I. Introduction
II. Evolution of Research on Legal Services in Rural Areas
III. Impacts of and on the Justice System in Rural and Remote Areas
IV. Structural Determinants of Future Rural Justice Policy
V. Conclusion: Future Priorities for Policy on Rural Justice
14. Access to Rural Justice: Domestic Violence in Rural America
I. Impacts of Domestic Violence: Rural Realities
II. Physical and Social Isolation in Rural Communities
III. Poverty
IV. Problematic Law Enforcement Response
V. Domestic Violence in Rural Immigrant Communities
VI. Conclusion
15. Rural Access to Justice and Beyond: Dimensions of Access as a Criterion for Understanding Lay Users' Satisfaction with Remote Justice
I. Introduction: Dysfunctionalities and Blockages and the Greater Use of Technology in Courts
II. Defining 'Remote Justice' and What 'Good' Access to Justice Looks Like
III. The Dimensions of Access and its Potential Application to Improving Remote Justice
IV. Learning from the Case Studies
Afterword
Index
