Reclaiming Access to Justice
Reclaiming Access to Justice
Warwick Law in the Community and the Law Centres Network
This collaborative forum between the Law Centres Network and Warwick Law in the Community aims to bring together academics and community legal practitioners to reflect critically on contemporary problems in accessing justice. We want to 'reclaim' the narrative around access to justice after years of austerity and create a space for critical reflection, creativity and collaboration between academics and community lawyers that can help us move the conversation in new directions.
Our events are organised around three themes that explore the theory and practice of community lawyering:
Access to What?
Tuesday 17 May 2022, 12:30pm-2:00pm
Online
What should access to justice mean in our contemporary context? This event will explore the contemporary meaning of access to justice and its implications for community lawyering, particularly in light of long term austerity, cuts to legal aid and the erosion of the rule of law. How has austerity constrained thinking on access to justice? How can we interrogate our own assumptions about what access to justice means in the first place? What is a meaningful conception of access to justice that we can strive for, and how does this interact with everyday realities?
Speakers:
Kate Leader, University of York
Chayne Hogan, University of Warwick
Karen Ashton, Central England Law Centre
Adam Gearey, Birkbeck College
Ursula O'Hare, Law Centre NI
Jacqui Kinghan, University of Glasgow
Beyond Digital Exclusion
Thursday 9 June 2022, 12:30pm- 2:00pm
Online
It is impossible to talk about the future of access to justice without digital technology, which has profound implications for what it means to practice law. This event will look beyond problems of digital exclusion to examine the ways in which digital technology changes the very foundations of law, the role of the community lawyer, and the experience of engaging with the legal system.
Speakers:
Serena Natile, University of Warwick
Kelli Moore, New York University
Sam Kirwan, University of Bristol
Mary Marvel, Law for Life
Community Lawyering and Movement Building
Thursday 30 June 2022, 2:00pm-4:30pm (followed by a reception)
In-person, University of Warwick
Our future is a collective one, with lawyers working alongside the wider community to achieve meaningful access to justice and bring about social change. This event is an opportunity to think creatively about the future of community lawyering, strategies for movement building, and transformative approaches to law and rights.
What is the role of the community lawyer in wider social justice movements? How far can rights go in achieving change at an individual and collective level? What are the limits of law and rights, and what can we do when we reach them? How can we collectively and collaboratively organise for change in and beyond the law?
In the final event of the series, we meet in person to discuss how community lawyering can support and be supported by movement building. A short programme of speakers and discussions will precede an informal reception where experiences, ideas and strategies for future collaborations can be shared.
We welcome proposals for diverse contributions from academics, practitioners, activists and organizers who are thinking about and working on these issues. These can take a variety of forms including short talks or roundtable discussions, art or performance-based contributions, storytelling. If you would like to propose a contribution, please include a few lines about what you would like to do when you register for the event, and we’ll get back to you.
The deadline to propose contributions (via the link below) is Friday 27 May 2022.
