Goyal on Legal Technology Innovation and lawTechCamp

Monica Goyal, J.D., M.Sc., of MyLegalBriefcase has published Why Tech Innovation Comes Slow in Legal Profession, on itbusiness.ca.

The post describes the panel discussion on “Legal Techs in a Brave New World” at lawTechCamp 2011, held 18 June 2011 in Toronto.

In this post, Ms. Goyal identifies several factors that inhibit legal technology innovation, including lawyers’ general lack of education in science and engineering, unduly strict regulation of the legal services market, and a lack of funding. Ms. Goyal highlights the current process in the UK of deregulating the legal services market, as a model for reform in other jurisdictions.

In addition, Connie Crosby recently wrote a post summarizing lawTechCamp 2011 at Slaw.ca, the Canadian legal blog. Discussions begun during lawTechCamp 2011 are being continued ina LinkedIn group.

New AfricLaw Blog for African Rule of Law Issues

AfricLaw, launched in April 2012, is a blog which provides a platform for discussion for those interested in the rule and role of law in Africa. The AfricLaw blog is a joint venture of the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa (ICLA) and the Centre for Human Rights (CHR) of the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria.

All areas of law applicable to Africa are covered, both international (global and continental) and national. Legal academics and students, researchers, international and national civil servants, legislators and politicians, legal practitioners and judges, as well as those who are not lawyers but have an interest in law are among those who are welcome to participate in the discussions. 

AfricLaw provides a space for the discussion of issues of substance, forming of opinions and information sharing among people living on the continent, those from Africa who are in the diaspora, and anyone else who is interested in participating. AfricLaw will also serve as a vehicle for comments from Africa on legal developments in the rest of the world. 

Berkman Series: Unexpected Development: Decolonial Media Aesthetics and Women’s ICT4D Video

Tuesday, April 17, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live.

ICT4D (Information Communication Technology for Development) powerfully frames women's grassroots video production in the Global South, much of which is distributed widely through YouTube. Often, these videos reproduce racialized and gendered discourses - legacies of colonialism - in their narratives of economic, social, and technological progress. However, there are also videos by women's groups that defy both the historical linearity and spatial fragmentation of the ICT4D framework. These videos instead remix, reclassify, and globally reconnect women's experiences in the contemporary moment. Culled from hundreds of online videos produced by ICT4D programs, including those in countries classified as having "Low Human Development" according to the Gender Inequality Index of the United Nations Development Program, these media represent powerful instances of a decolonial aesthetics, an altogether unexpected development. These ICT4D videos make compelling claims for other historical narratives and visions for women's future lives, identities, and uses of information communication technologies.

Dalida María Benfield's research addresses artists' and activists' creative uses of video and other networked digital media towards social justice projects. Her work is focused on the transformational capacities of media art across different scales. As an artist and activist, she has developed production, education, exhibition, and distribution initiatives focused on youth, women, people of color in the U.S., and local and transnational social movements, including co-founding the media collective Video Machete. She received her Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of California-Berkeley in Comparative Ethnic Studies with Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. RSVP Required- more information on Berkman's website>

Uganda's JLOS Holds Workshop To Validate the National Legal Aid Policy

This is a cross posting from the DevLawGeek blog maintained by San:

I have just returned from Uganda where we work in partnership with JLOS, (Justice Law and Order Sector),  an umbrella organization of key government/quasi-government stakeholders in Uganda, for the coordination of access to and administration of justice, simply because these are areas of overlapping jurisdiction between so many actors. For practical (and maybe political?) purposes, it also acts as the channel for much international funding for Access To Justice and Democracy/Governance projects. It comprises of among others, the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs (MOJCA), Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA); The Judiciary; Uganda Police Force (UPF), and the Uganda Law Society. 

Uganda, like Rwanda, has been developing a policy document for legal aid, and we had the benefit of attending the stakholders' meeting and reviewing a draft of the document. One issue that we face in many countries, and in Africa in particular, is that legal aid is traditionally seen as free, and in fact, this has been encased in this document. So when we try to introduce an innovative fee-for-service model in legal service delivery for the poor (much like microfinance that charges fees and interests), we run into multiple issues on branding (are we a law firm?), 

Official Announcement from JLOS' website:

Event: ABA presents Exploring Trends in Promoting the Rule of Law

The American Bar Association (ABA) is presenting a workshop on "Exploring Trends in Promoting the Rule of Law".
March 28, 2012, 12:30–7:00 p.m.
Venue Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center
3800 Reservoir Road, NW, Washington, D.C.
Register online 

What is most interesting to us is that Technology and Access to Justice is one of the topics of discussion, which is the niche that BarefootLawyers fell into some years ago by accident, and it is so nice to know that the field is expanding and being promoted by the usual suspects such as the ABA. Their topic description:

Technology and Access to Justice
Technology holds significant potential for increasing access to justice. This panel will share examples of the ways in which technology has already contributed in this area, and, if better utilized, how technology can produce further gains. Does the democracy and governance community have realistic expectations about the potential of technology to increase access to justice and, more generally, to propel justice sector reform?

ABA ROLI to present the Access to Justice Assessment Tool

Please click here to RSVP.

Event Details: March 21, 2012. 10am-2pm
Location: American Society of International Law, at Tillar House
2223 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20008


The Access to Justice Assessment Tool is one in a series of assessment tools developed by experts in technical legal assistance and law reform at the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI). The Tool is a research methodology for assessing the extent to which communities and individuals are able to use justice institutions to solve common justice problems.  It has enabled civil society organizations in countries around the world to conduct professional-quality research on access to justice and to design effective reforms and programming to address access to justice challenges in their communities. Using the Access to Justice Assessment Tool, ABA ROLI’s civil society partners have made important discoveries and generated knowledge with the potential to improve access to justice for the poor and the marginalized.

Namati inviting South Asian participants to M&E Workshop

South Asia Practitioners Fair: Monitoring and Evaluation
19^th – 20^th April 2012, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Namati is teaming up with BRAC, Multiple Action Rights Group (MARG), and Open Society Justice Initiative to offer NGO leaders and senior program managers an opportunity to explore their own monitoring and evaluation plans with some of the world’s leading experts in measuring the impact of legal empowerment.

You’ll have the chance to hear about the latest methodologies used in the field, and have one-on-one detailed advice from experts on the most suitable approach for your own needs, as well as input in planning your own research. By the end of the workshop, you will come away with concrete plans for understanding and documenting the impact of your work.

Inaugural Singapore Clinical Legal Education Conference and Workshop March 16-17, 2012

Inaugural Singapore Clinical Legal Education Conference and CLE Community Legal Education Training of Trainers Workshop

by

Singapore Management University in partnership with

Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia CLE,

Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia CLE Singapore, and

Northumbria International Journal of Clinical Legal Education

Synopsis

The importance of pro bono work was emphasised during the Opening of Legal Year 2012, with the Chief Justice articulating the need to actively cultivate a culture of doing pro bono work.

It is against this backdrop that the Inaugural Singapore Clinical Legal Education Conference and CLE Training of Trainers Workshop are launched. The Conference and Workshop will serve as a forum to create opportunities for promoting Clinical Legal Education (CLE) in Singapore, the ASEAN region and the globe. The promotion of CLE ties in well with the expressed desire to revitalise Singapore’s pro bono scene.