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Fine words – but new HMCTS public guidance falls short
HMCTS recently launched a document entitled “How you can attend or access courts or tribunals — a guide for members of the public”. It is not clear whether this is intended to be the “Charter summarising the existing rules that facilitate public access to court and tribunal hearings and information”…
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Open Justice Today – speech by the Lord Chief Justice
In his recent speech, the outgoing Lord Chief Justice for England & Wales described how “sunlight is the best disinfectant” but was his perspective on open justice rather rosier than reality? Paul Magrath assesses the evidence. In one of his last speeches before retiring as the head of the judiciary…
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New reports on access to justice system data
The fortnight has brought, like buses, two new reports relating to justice system data access. First, an update from network member and advisor Paul Magrath, on the publication of listed judgments by the National Archives Find Case Law service, in the final report of ICLR’s research: The National Archives launched…
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A joint submission to the MoJ consultation on open justice
In response to the House of Commons Justice committee report on open justice, and the susequent Ministry of Justice consultation, an ad hoc group of court and tribunal observers assembled to discuss ideas in meetings and virtually. We made the following collective submission, in addition to individual submissions in other…
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Report: Courts and Tribunals Access and Observation Workshop
We are pleased to publish our report following the Courts and Tribunals Access and Observation Workshop held at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. Our report discusses challenges of court observation and issues of public participation in the courtroom, where some of the key questions are: ‘access to what, by…
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Welcome to the Courts and Tribunals Observers’ Network
This initiative, funded by the Sheila Kitzinger Programme, focuses on Open Justice and Courts and Tribunals Observation and Access, building on UK civil society and legal policy work on technological changes to the justice system. The convenor is Dr Judith Townend, University of Sussex. One of our central questions is…
Courts and Tribunals Observers’ Network 