Tilburg Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies of Civil Law and Conflict Resolution Systems

Interdisciplinary and empirical-based research, with a focus on the individuals and corporations who use, are involved with, or are influenced by the law and the civil justice system.

Approach and Strategy

General approach:

  • Interdisciplinary research and development approach (law, economics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, policy evaluation, performance measurement);
  • International cooperation and intensive interaction with stakeholders;
  • Focus on the needs of the users (legal empowerment).

Strategy:

  1. Identify common and urgent situations in which people need access to justice (justice needs).
  2. Define and operationalize indicators of a) costs; b) quality of the procedure and c) quality of the outcome;
  3. Collect empirical data on paths to justice in 6 countries;
  4. Compute "Access to Justice Index";
  5. Consult methodology and results with broad range of stakeholders;
  6. Improve the validity and reliability of the methodology; adapt to specific paths to justice;
  7. Codify the theoretical, methodological and practical advancement into "Handbook for Measuring Access to Justice";
  8. Stimulate use, increase coverage, and raise awareness.

The particular deliverables and status reports can be found at the project Wiki.