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Access to Justice
Delay in Justice
"To no-one shall we deny or delay justice or right" was one of the promises of Magna Charta. And another famous statement is "Justice delayed is justice denied".
Yet many countries experience serious problems of delay in hearing cases.
How can delay in the justice system be reduced? Among the possible ways are:
- Make sure there are enough judges and other resources
- Improve the management of the court system
- Streamline court rules and procedures, and try to ensure that there are incentives to reasonable speed rather than incentives to delay
- Combat corruption (which may be connected with delay)
- Provide adequate alternatives for people who are happy to have their disputes decided in other ways - such as mediation, or through traditional or local court and tribunals.
A constitution can deal to some extent with some of these points. For example it can:
- Create anti-corruption bodies and provide for procedures designed to curb corruption
- Permit or require the creation of other forms of dispute resolution than the ordinary courts - see mediation on this website
- In other ways provide for access to justice for all sections of society.
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