Search results

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of Administration of Justice as a research field and set out an agenda for future studies that could promote the production of scientific knowledge in this area.

This paper explores the idiosyncratic features, dimensions of analysis upon the Administration of Justice, states a research agenda and discusses the main challenges on this theme. This paper conceptualizes Administration of Justice as a research field and discusses related phenomena from institutional and economic perspectives on innovation, performance, governance and legitimacy.

As a research field, Administration of Justice is defined as a set of theoretical concepts, research methods and techniques, aiming to investigate the management processes associated with the use and articulation of resources, knowledge and institutions, at different levels of the justice system, and their influence on the provision of justice in a given social context. As social phenomena, four levels of analysis are proper to investigate the justice system: societal, inter-organizational, organizational and operational. Innovation, performance, governance and legitimacy are central themes of the Administration of Justice and present various gaps and research opportunities.

The main implications is the proposal of an agenda for future studies on the Administration of Justice field, which is an important step in raising awareness of the issue.

Administration of Justice encompasses a growing interest among academics, justice practitioners and public managers regarding managerial and political practices carried out in the justice system. Although relevant, this subject has been scarcely studied by the management community. This paper invites community to adopt an organizational and institutional perspective to Administration of Justice, setting an agenda for future research.

The object of this research is the reconstruction of the existing legal response by European Union states to the phenomenon of immigration. It seeks to analyse the process of conferral of protection.

One main dimension is selected and discussed: the case law of the national courts. The study focuses on the legal status of immigrants resulting from the intervention of these national courts.

The research shows that although the courts have conferred an increasing protection on immigrants, this has not challenged the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of the states to decide, according to their discretionary prerogatives, which immigrants are allowed to enter and stay in their territories. Notwithstanding the differences in the general constitutional and legal structures, the research also shows that the courts of the three countries considered – France, Germany and Spain – have progressively moved towards converging solutions in protecting immigrants.

The research contributes to a better understanding of the different legal orders analysed.

A new republic has just begun in Nigeria in 2015 with the election of two anti-corruption crusaders as President and Vice president, respectively. Although very few empirical studies exist on the subject of corruption within the justice system in Nigeria the intolerable popular impression is that the machinery of justice in Nigeria is quite notoriously corrupt. The aim of this paper is to identify strategies and mechanisms that will enhance the professionalism, effectiveness, integrity, accountability and transparency of the organisations within Nigeria’s administration of justice system both at the federal and state levels including Ministries of Justice, the Police, the Prison Service, immigration, customs and even the Bar.

Literature research is used to examine the problem. The author looks at corruption in the context of Nigerian laws. He tabulates the offences within the scope of the prohibition against corruption in Nigeria, as well as the incidences of corruption within the various sections of the criminal justice system. The prescriptive recommendations are divided into short-, medium- and long-term measures.

That corruption is actually prevalent in all areas of the Nigerian justice system. It is crucial that an impression must be made by the new administration in this area within a very short frame of time to arrest the situation and to reverse the damage caused so far.

Word limit has not enabled us to go into deeper analysis. Lack of objective studies done from within the Nigeria justice sector itself on the manifestation of corruption.

Very original analysis based on unique insight into the issue as academics, lawyers and practitioners within Nigerian anticorruption institutions.

This essay weds conceptions of justice within Public Administration to the theme of revenge in the Hollywood Western, arguing that the revival of the genre in the 1990s reflects changes in the public conception of due process and equality before the law. The Western genre’s evolution is illustrative of the way definitions of justice are socially, contextually specific. Unforgiven illustrates this shift because the violence in the film symbolizes the vengeance culture so anathema to American notions of procedural justice and explores shifting conceptions of justice through a 19th century allegory of injustice, the heart of which is the treatment of a person as property. This fantasy of the violent resolution of conflict is examined against Public Administration's insistence upon resolving competing conceptions of the good through peaceful, deliberative modalities.

When they arrived in the New World the English Puritans expected to pursue justice by using the Bible and discretionary justice. Because they left England, in part, as an escape from a contemporary Sodom and Gomorrah, it is ironical that the discovery of sexual license in the New World forced Puritan authorities to reconsider how they administered justice. It was, in fact, the ongoing sexual misdeeds of the colonists that forced the jettisoning of discretionary justice and the substitution for it of a system of justice administration with a legal code. In effect, this was the first public administration in English America, and it was established because of sexual misconduct.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the cases of “delayed and denied” justice that resulted from a lack of or poor record-keeping in the South African courts and police service with a view to encouraging proper records management. Proper records management plays a significant role in supporting the justice system. Records provide the critical evidence that a particular action or transaction took place and can be used as evidence in a court of law. Without reliable and authentic records, government cannot administer justice and, as a result, offenders can be set free while the victims are denied justice.

Utilising content analysis, this study extracted print media articles (2000-2012) relating to the “records and justice system” from the South African Media database, which is one of the databases hosted by the South African Bibliographic and Information Network. The study selected cases reported in the media to conduct follow-up interviews with a policeman, lawyer and judge to discover the implications of the unavailability of required records in court cases. Furthermore, access was given to three selected cases that were given high profile in the media and these cases were analysed to find out what the final verdict in each case was.

Results of the study suggest that some criminal cases were withdrawn due to missing dockets or cases not properly registered. In some instances, records were reconstructed, resulting in the travesty of justice. The study concludes by arguing that if records are not accounted for, lawyers, prosecutors and magistrates could dispute the authenticity of records. As a result, justice for victims would be delayed and ultimately denied while the perpetrators are freed.

The findings and recommendations of this study may go a long way in helping courts in South Africa to manage records properly to support the justice system. Furthermore, the study is a useful compilation of the importance of missing records for social purposes.

In an attempt to show the role of records management in the administration of justice in South Africa, this study used a triangulation of data collection tools. This is a new attempt, especially in the South African context. Previous studies in southern Africa only looked at the management of records in supporting justice system.

This chapter provides a genealogy of the Gladue–Ipeelee principle of special consideration of Indigenous circumstances at sentencing. The principle is codified in the 1996 statutory requirement that “all available sanctions other than imprisonment … should be considered for all offenders, with particular attention to the circumstances of Aboriginal offenders” (s. 718.2e of the Criminal Code of Canada). Using the Foucaultian genealogy method to produce a “history of the present,” this chapter eschews normative questions of how s. 718.2e has “failed” to reduce Indigenous over-incarceration to instead focus on how practices of “special consideration” reproduce settler-state paternalism. This chapter addresses three key components of the Gladue–Ipeelee principle: the collection of circumstances information, the characterization of those circumstances, and finally their consideration at sentencing. Part one focuses on questions of legitimacy and authority and explicates how authority and responsibility to produce Indigenous circumstances knowledge was transferred from the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) to Indigenous Courtworker organizations in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Part two identifies how authority shapes problematization by examining the characterization of Indigenous circumstances in the two eras, finding that present-day Gladue reports articulate an Indigenous history and critique of colonialism as the root cause of Indigenous criminalization, whereas DIA reports prior to 1970 generally characterized this criminalization as a “failure to assimilate.” Part three focuses on the structural reproduction of power relations by exploring historical continuities in judicial and executive-branch consideration of Indigenous circumstances, suggesting that the Gladue–Ipeelee principle reinscribes a colonial “mercy” framework of diminished responsibility. The author discusses how the principle operates in the shadow of Indigenous over-incarceration as a form of state “recognition” and a technique of governance to encourage Indigenous participation in the settler justice system and suggests that the Gladue–Ipeelee principle produces a governing effect that reinforces settler-state authority by recirculating colonial practices and discourses of settler superiority.

The purpose of this paper is to share the experience of Centre for Management Studies, NALSAR University of Law in developing the new MBA programme in Court Administration and Management.

This paper describes the urgent need of skilled managers for court management and administration in an Indian context. The identification of the gap in skilled manpower and the availability of a structured learning platform at a master’s level is also discussed in the paper. In addition, the detailed process that the university adopted in developing the programme objectives, structure and curriculum is also explained.

Educational innovations are rare. This programme is one-of-its-kind in India. NALSAR University of Law introduced this programme after a rigorous screening and evaluation process. This paper highlights the importance of proper planning and execution in introducing innovative programmes. The paper also highlights the acceptance that the programme received from all stakeholders due to its relevance and diligent planning.

This paper makes an attempt to provide the detailed workflow that any university should undertake prior to launching any programme. The importance of identifying relevant stakeholders, the process of developing a programme, curating and conducting the process for best outcomes, with an emphasis on the contribution that a university can make is discussed in detail.

MBA in Court Administration and Management offered by NALSAR University of Law is unique as similar programmes are not offered by any other university in India. Thus, this paper is a novel contribution in highlighting the development and launch of the programme in Asia.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the role of the judiciary in ensuring legal accountability of government officials and its impact on governance in the context of Bangladesh. Although, the judicial system of Bangladesh comprises Supreme Court, subordinate courts and tribunals. However, this study focuses Supreme Court only to keep the study in a manageable extent.

The study is qualitative in nature and based on content analysis. Dhaka Law Report (DLR), which is a monthly published report on case laws[1] decided by the Supreme Court has been selected as content for this study. Some case laws selected from DLR (2004‐2008) were analyzed using purposive sampling method, with a view to evaluating the effectiveness of judiciary (as an external but formal mechanism of accountability) in accountability of government administration and management and its impact on overall governance.

The most important finding of this paper is that the judiciary is very effective for ensuring legal accountability of government officials, which ultimately contributes to human rights and good governance. However, a major problem found was that until and unless an affected person files a case against a government authority, maintaining the required procedures of judiciary, it (the judiciary) has no scope to settle any disputes. Though there is a provision of Suo Muto (by own initiative) rule of the Supreme Court, this practice is very rare in Bangladesh. Furthermore, the executive is responsible for implementing the verdict of the judiciary. Therefore, if the government has not enough respect for, or does not care to implement judiciary's verdict, justice and rule of law will not be ensured. This study also found some cases like this.

This work does not address detailed issues of governance and is not based on empirical data.

This is a mixed study of judiciary and public administration, which is very rare in Bangladesh. Therefore, it will be brought into line with current practice by the concerned researchers and policy makers in public administration and judiciary.

This paper will be of interest to legal practitioners, policy makers, academicians and those in the field of governance.

Figures published by the Ministry of Justice show significant progress against New Labour's targets to reduce reoffending by young people within the youth justice system. The outgoing government was, unsurprisingly, quick to infer that such findings constituted corroboration of the improved effectiveness of youth justice practice under their administration. This article considers whether such an inference is warranted and discusses other potential explanations of the data.