This book examines the state of access to criminal justice by considering the health of the lawyer-client relationship under legal aid. In the largest study of its kind for some two decades, ethnographic fieldwork is used to gain a fresh perspective upon the interaction that lies at the heart of the criminal justice system's equality of arms. The research produces two contradictory messages; in interview, lawyers claim a positive relationship with their clients while, under participant observation, there emerges quite the opposite. Paying more heed to what was seen than what was said, it is supposed that these lawyers were able to talk the talk but not walk the walk. The lawyers treat their clients with wanton disrespect; making fun of them, talking over them and pushing them to plead guilty – despite protestations to the contrary. The evidence is damning for this branch of the legal profession – and tragic for the clients who depend on them. What is responsible for this malaise...inadequate financial remuneration? Increased time pressures? Lapsed ethical training? Whatever the origin, this book is intended to show the profession that there is a problem – one that could get worse unless they choose to learn from the mistakes made by the lawyers in this study.

This book examines the state of access to criminal justice by considering the health of the lawyer-client relationship under legal aid.

A volume of essays on how justice has been denied in various parts of South Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal.

Summarized proceedings of a conference sponsored by the Commission on a National Institute of Justice and held December 6-8, 1972, in Washington, D.C. ; includes a conference document, Quest for justice, and 3 appendices.

This book - one in the four-volume set,Global Governance and the Quest for Justice - focuses on themes of citizen organisation and empowerment set in the context of globalising legal processes. Chapter One sets the scene. Chapters Two, Three and Four focus on various challenges that globalisation poses for private law. How does substantive contract and tort doctrine that has been developed (mainly) for use within national legal systems adapt to more globalised dealings and wrongdoings? Should the source of regulation be private international law, harmonised national law, international accords (or some combination)? Chapters Five, Six and Seven focus on issues relating to access to justice (as a mode of empowerment) and its impact on the functioning of civil society. These chapters highlight a variety of procedural, professional and institutional challenges for access to justice in a globalised world. Chapter Eight considers how we are to reconcile the competing visions of the basis on which essential services are to be provided. In a global marketplace, is there any room for local values or for values other than those of free-market thinking? Finally, Chapter Nine focuses on the question of democracy in a globalised world. If civil society is to retain its political vitality, how are citizens to remain engaged and enfranchised as a new global politico-legal order takes shape?