Access to Justice Across Jurisdictions

Objective:
This course aims to offer a comprehensive framework for the different ways states provide legal aid and how access to justice is reconceptualized through alternative dispute resolution and online dispute resolution. By the end of the course, you will recognize the new paths access to justice is taking in a critical, comparative, and historical perspective.

Description:
This course in comparative law examines the legal aid that states provide their citizens and how access to justice is reconceptualized through alternative dispute resolution and online dispute resolution. By looking closer at constitutional provisions, legal documents, and essential readings on the subject, we will explore cases from Brazil, the United States, and across Europe to better understand how different jurisdictions dialogue and what potentialities and limits exist for further extending access to the court system. We will also think more broadly about access to justice, revisiting now-classic theoretical writings on the theme (Mauro Cappelletti and the Florence project), paradigmatic cases in the United States, and more recent international documents demanding legal aid in and for developing countries.

Course outline

  • History and theories of international comparative law.
  • Alternative dispute resolution and online dispute resolution.
  • Analysis of how different jurisdictions dialogue & access to the court system.
  • Access to justice, revisiting now-classic theoretical writings on the theme.
  • Analysis of paradigmatic cases in the US, and recent international documents demanding legal aid in and for developing countries

Reading Assignments on :

  • Access to Justice in the U.S and Legal Change
  • Online Dispute Resolution: access to justice ?
  • The Brazilian case of Judicial Retrenchment
  • Access to Justice in Mass Society
  • The Right to Counsel in American Criminal Cases
  • Italy and other European Jurisdictions
  • Justice Without Rights: The Normalization of the Exception

Handling written papers & oral presentations.

Expected Workload and Final Grade:
• This course expects from students their ability to conduct further independent readings.
• The final grade for the course will be determined as follows:
a) preparation for classes;
b) participation in classes;
c) final oral presentations in classes on the analyzed topics;
d) handling written papers of students’ presentations.
• Reading Assignments – 20-10: Syllabus.

  • Cappelletti, Mauro, and James Gordley. “Legal Aid: Modern Themes and Variations Part 1 & 2 : The Emergence of a Modern Theme.”.
  • Lasser, M. (2003). The question of understanding.
  • Mattei, Ugo., and Laura. Nader. Plunder : When the Rule of Law Is Illegal.
  • Burbank, Stephen B., and Sean Farhang. Rights and Retrenchment : The Counterrevolution Against Federal Litigation
  • Susskind, Richard E. Online Courts and the Future of Justice. Oxford University Press, 2019
  • Alves, Cleber Francisco. Meeting Immediate Legal Needs Via the Brazilian Public Defender’s Office: An Exemplary Case. In Access to Justice in the Americas.
  • Galanter, Marc. “Why the haves come out ahead: Speculations on the limits of legal change.

Method of training:

Couse Code:GNI1017
Participants:Anyone interested in comparative law.
Current and potential leaders of national institutions,
government officials, civil society, NGO and international organisations
Duration:16 Weeks. ( Wednesday, from 14:00-16:00 CET).
Your Instructor

Dr. Mariella Pittari
Lecturer
Ph.D. candidate Università Degli Studi di Torino. Freie Universität Mitarbeiter. LLM Cornell University/International College of Turin. Public Defender.