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In the Foreword to the first Annual Report of the Commissioner for the Rights of Trade Union Members, Mrs.Gill Rowlands says “As Commissioner I am able to provide material assistance to union members contemplating or taking certain proceedings in connection with … matters specified [in] … the 1988 Act. If assistance is granted, the applicant will know that he/she will not be placed at a disadvantage by a lack of ability to obtain legal advice or pay legal costs in connection with those proceedings.”

This chapter examines the prevalence of justiciable civil justice problems experienced by Canadians, the ways in which people respond to them and the consequences of experiencing these kinds of problems. The results show that experiencing justiciable problems is a nearly normal feature of the everyday lives of a large proportion of the population in a modern society. Particularly, important features of justiciable problems are the prevalence of multiple problems, the clustering of justiciable problems and the linkages between justiciable, health and social problems. The results suggest that justiciable problems may be a part of broader patterns of social exclusion. One implication of this research is that access to justice services may not only address legal problems but, by doing so, may have the effect of forestalling processes of social exclusion of which civil law problems are a part.

Extreme events are the occasion for many people’s encounters with climate change. Though causation is complex and no one event is directly attributable to climate change, when we consider Cassandra, we can consider what people encounter in assistance after an extreme event. This chapter takes the case of assistance to displaced people after Katrina to explore how care and surveillance were intertwined. Methods include analysis of government documents as well as interviews. When we consider assistance people receive, we often focus on the intended assistance and how it worked or did not. Evaluation is difficult, not least because criteria for determining what it means to work are uncertain. However, if we include the process of gaining assistance as part of the experience, we broaden concerns from the instrumental outcomes to the mixed messages people get in assistance. Assistance appears in a context, where the most vulnerable people have reasons to mistrust government and nonprofits, and where in the United States assistance has come intertwined with supervisory rules, a focus on getting people to work, and a need to manage criminal histories. Trust in government may be limited, emergency care can operate outside ordinary legal frameworks when providers are new, and legal accountability for assistance may be experienced as confining, despite caregivers’ intent.

The global cooperation and cooperation between nations at differing stages in anti-money laundering (AML) is critical. To improve the effectiveness of international cooperation in AML, it is essential to diversify international cooperation mechanisms and improve the capacity of law enforcement officers in the field of preventing this crime. This paper aims to provide a comparative analysis of mutual legal assistance (MLA) and extradition within the AML legal framework in Palestine and Malaysia. It investigates the gaps and weaknesses in Palestine’s AML legal framework and offers recommendations to address them.

The present paper is solely legal. The method adopted in this research paper is qualitative research with an emphasis on the doctrinal mechanism. As a result, it concentrates on procedures, protocols, legislation and policies.

The Malaysian AML legal framework offers a clearer and more comprehensive framework for MLAs and extradition than the Palestinian AML legal framework. This framework is supported by laws that meet the basic requirements to support the issues of AML international cooperation. Both countries agree that the absence of a “bilateral or multilateral agreement” is not considered a reason for rejecting international cooperation in the field of AML with foreign countries. Moreover, the Malaysian AML legal framework divides the roles well between the law enforcement agencies and the competent authorities competing to Palestine.

This paper would be beneficial for the Palestinian legislative, policymakers and law enforcement agencies to make international cooperation, especially with MLAs and extradition effective.

OCLC Research conducted a global survey focusing on libraries’ strategic goals that incorporate five of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where libraries could have the greatest impact. More than 1,700 library staff completed the survey and identified how they were integrating these five SDGs [Quality Education (SDG 4), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), Reduced Inequality (SDG 10), Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (SDG 16), and Working in Partnership to Achieve the Goals (SDG 17)] in their strategic framework and the activities that staff undertook as part of their overall mission.

Results from the survey combined with other projects provide examples of how the SDGs inform library strategic planning and how the library staff’s activities impact sustainable development in their communities. Quality education (SDG 4) was the top goal that respondents believe libraries can impact through community training and classes. Public libraries also often are the main source of credible information and facts in a community.

This commitment to quality education and credible information is demonstrated in the role libraries play in helping community members to access legal information. This chapter describes several different partnerships where libraries are important connectors to legal information which often can be life changing to the community, such as providing information on how to expunge a criminal record to obtain employment.

Disasters significantly reduce the accessibility of justice particularly in rural locations. The bushfires, which ravaged three states in the south-east of Australia in late 2019 and early 2020, have had catastrophic social and economic impacts on people, animals and places in rural areas. In the aftermath of disasters, people by necessity must inevitably avail themselves of legal advice and services: to negotiate new business contracts; re-mortgage property; access wills and testaments; attend court; and for a host of other matters. In rural communities, where access to legal services is already limited by distance and circumstance, disasters create increased demand, and access issues are accentuated. This chapter explores access to justice issues in post-disaster context and as they relate to rural, regional and remote communities. It draws upon post-disaster experiences nationally and internationally, outlining responses to improve access to legal services past and present, identifying effective responses. It argues that rurality creates additional barriers and reduces access to justice, and that disasters exacerbate existing access issues as well as creating new challenges.

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the various means available to US authorities for obtaining foreign evidence and other types of international assistance in money laundering cases. The means analysed here include mutual legal assistance treaties (MLATs) and similar processes; multilateral treaties; tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) and tax treaties (for a narrow range of money laundering offences); court‐sponsored procedures for taking foreign depositions, including letters rogatory; the use of unilateral compulsory measures, such as subpoenas, for obtaining foreign evidence, and the use of FinCEN and Interpol resources. The initiatives of the G7, the Financial Action Task Force and the OECD regarding international cooperation in money laundering matters are also briefly treated.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Vietnamese laws and practices concerning the confiscation of proceeds of crime, especially in view of Vietnam’s obligations to meet the international standards on money laundering and terrorist financing, set by the Financial Action Task Force and relevant international conventions that Vietnam ratified. To limit the scope of this paper, the analysis focuses on the confiscation of proceeds of domestic crimes that do not require international legal assistance. This paper concludes with recommendations for improving the legal framework on criminal asset recovery in Vietnam.

This is a doctrinal study that considers the applicable legal framework. This study is supported by brief case studies of major cases involving the confiscation of proceeds of crime.

Vietnam has a functioning asset confiscation regime but gaps in the law, lack of financial investigation expertise and lack of focused investigative attention on asset preservation and confiscation are hampering its effectiveness. The key gaps can easily be closed with appropriate amendments to the law. These reforms should be combined with a dedicated skills development program to produce sufficient number of financial investigation experts and criminal asset management experts to support the regime. The training should extend to judicial officers to ensure an appropriate understanding of the asset confiscation law. Reforms such as these should follow on a comprehensive review of Vietnam’s law and practices relating to the confiscation and forfeiture of criminal assets. This review should extend to assets linked to the financing of terrorism and proliferation to ensure that Vietnam has a comprehensive regime to deal with criminal assets.

This paper draws on publicly available information regarding the confiscation of proceeds of crime in Vietnam. Little data is available on asset confiscation and that prevents an in-depth assessment of the regime.

This paper highlights gaps in the current asset confiscation regime and proposes reforms and approaches that will ensure a more effective asset confiscation regime for Vietnam.

The lockdown and physical distancing precautions to curtail the increase of COVID-19 in Africa nearly shut down economies across the continent, caused slow trade, and triggered mass poverty. Hence, the need for Africa to be interconnected with the world economy by reforming its legal systems for swift post-COVID-19 economic recovery, to utilise the legal system in addressing socio-economic shocks. The weaknesses in Africa's legal systems in response to socio-economic shocks uncovered a critical threat to humanity, despite efforts, limited resources and strategies put in place. This research adopts a library-based doctrinal legal research technique with a critical review and conceptual approach by relying on the existing literature. The aim is to explore the potency of the existing legal frameworks, such as the African Continental Free Trade Agreement and the Economic Community of West African States Protocol, to combat socio-economic shocks in Africa's Economy. The study carries out a comparative appraisal of the legal system in Ghana, Angola, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria for useful insights in suggesting conversion of the pandemic to blessings by reforming their legal systems to embrace technologies to guarantee speedy economic recovery strategies. The study proposes a model for speedy economic recovery via legal instruments to support commercial activities. It ends with recommendations such as the reformation of the legal system to mitigate jobs losses and embrace technologies. Adopting alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, strict implementation of African Continental Free Trade Agreement for economic resilience against future economic shocks.