Quality Management and its relation to Transparency and Access to Justice

The general topic to be studied in 2008-2009 was Transparency and Access to Justice. The  Report on Quality and Access to Justice 2009 aims to examine quality management in its relation to transparency and access to justice in the various judiciaries participating in the Working Group.
For the purpose of this Report, access to justice is understood in its narrow sense: access to information on the judicial organization and on proceedings. Other aspects of access to justice such as financial and geographical access are dealt with
in the 2009-2010 Report.

The 2009 Register is organised around twelve categories of quality activities identified by the Working Group and contains
brief descriptions of all activities deployed in the participating countries.

Within the triangle of quality management, transparency and access to justice, quality management and transparency can be viewed as instruments to improve/increase access to justice (amongst other goals). The Report is structured as follows. In chapter 2 of the Report, the Working Group will first seek to define and characterise access to justice and transparency. What do we mean by transparency: is this
availability upon request or action by the informer? When speaking of transparency, can we identify different levels of transparency? Another issue discussed in chapter 2 concerns the purposes and effects of transparency. In chapter 3, the Working Group will zoom in on the transparency aspect of certain quality management activities in a number of participating judiciaries. The activities selected for this part of the Report largely correspond to the activities already described in chapter 4 of the 2008 Report. The 2009 Report is meant as a sequel to the 2008 Report and both reports must therefore be read together. Those interested in reading more about the concept of quality in the judiciary, the roles and tasks of the different Councils/Court Administrations as regards quality management, and the different quality management activities deployed in the various participating judiciaries are therefore invited to consult the Working Group's 2008 Report.