IBA consults on planned guidance for legal aid systems

The International Bar Association (IBA) is inviting views as it develops guidance on legal aid systems for jurisdictions worldwide.

The project, which is being coordinated by the IBA Bar Issues Commission and the IBA Access to Justice & Legal Aid Committee, is now consulting on an approach to access to legal aid in civil, administrative and family justice systems, through a paper prepared following a Legal Aid Roundtable held in Belfast at the IBA Mid-Year Meeting.

Criminal justice systems have not been included because in December 2012 the United Nations adopted the UN Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems, the first international instrument on the right to legal aid.

Andrew Mackenzie, chief executive of the Scottish Arbitration Centre, who is co-vice chair of the IBA Access to Justice & Legal Aid Committee, commented: “The aim of the project is to produce a guidance document on the matters that governments could usefully consider when developing or reforming their legal aid systems and to offer examples of good practice from around the world. I hope Scottish practitioners will engage in the process and complete the consultation.”

Click here to view the consultation document. Responses are invited by 25 August 2017, and will be discussed at a session at the IBA annual conference in Sydney in October.