Marginalized Communities and Access to Justice is a comparative study, by leading researchers in the field of law and justice, of the imperatives and constraints of access to justice among a number of marginalized communities. A central feature of the rule of law is the equality of all before the law. As part of this equality, all persons have the right to the protection of their rights by the state, particularly the judiciary. Therefore equal access to the courts and other organs of the state concerned with the enforcement of the law is central. These studies - undertaken by internationally renowned scholars and practitioners - examine the role of courts and similar bodies in administering the laws that pertain to the entitlements of marginalized communities, and address individuals' and organisations' access to institutions of justice: primarily, but not exclusively, courts. They raise broad questions about the commitment of the state to law and human rights as the principal framework for policy and executive authority, as well as the impetus to law reform through litigation. Offering insights into the difficulties of enforcing, and indeed of the will to enforce, the law, this book thus engages fundamental questions about value of engagement with the formal legal system for marginalized communities.

Marginalized Communities and Access to Justice is a comparative study, by leading researchers in the field of law and justice, of the imperatives and constraints of access to justice among a number of marginalized communities. A central feature of the rule of law is the equality of all before the law. As part of this equality, all persons have the right to the protection of their rights by the state, particularly the judiciary. Therefore equal access to the courts and other organs of the state concerned with the enforcement of the law is central. These studies - undertaken by internationally renowned scholars and practitioners - examine the role of courts and similar bodies in administering the laws that pertain to the entitlements of marginalized communities, and address individuals' and organisations' access to institutions of justice: primarily, but not exclusively, courts. They raise broad questions about the commitment of the state to law and human rights as the principal framework for policy and executive authority, as well as the impetus to law reform through litigation. Offering insights into the difficulties of enforcing, and indeed of the will to enforce, the law, this book thus engages fundamental questions about value of engagement with the formal legal system for marginalized communities.

Autonomy provides a framework that allows for regions within countries to exercise self-government beyond the extent available to other sub-state units. This book presents detailed case studies of thirteen such autonomies from around the world, in which noted experts on each outline the constitutional, legal and institutional frameworks as well as how these arrangements have worked in practice to protect minority rights and prevent secession of the territories in question. The volume's editors draw on the case studies to provide a comparative analysis of how autonomy works and the political and institutional conditions under which it is likely to become a workable arrangement for management of the differences that brought it into being.

Autonomy provides a framework that allows for regions within countries to exercise self-government beyond the extent available to other sub-state units. This book presents detailed case studies of thirteen such autonomies from around the world, in which noted experts on each outline the constitutional, legal and institutional frameworks as well as how these arrangements have worked in practice to protect minority rights and prevent secession of the territories in question. The volume's editors draw on the case studies to provide a comparative analysis of how autonomy works and the political and institutional conditions under which it is likely to become a workable arrangement for management of the differences that brought it into being.

In the years since it was established on 1 July 1997, Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal has developed a distinctive body of new law and doctrine with the help of eminent foreign common law judges. Under the leadership of Chief Justice Andrew Li, it has also remained independent under Chinese sovereignty and become a model for other Asian final courts working to maintain the rule of law, judicial independence and professionalism in challenging political environments. In this book, leading practitioners, jurists and academics examine the Court's history, operation and jurisprudence, and provide a comparative analysis with European courts and China's other autonomous final court in Macau. It also makes use of extensive empirical data compiled from the jurisprudence to illuminate the Court's decision-making processes and identify the relative impacts of the foreign and local judges.

Responses to ethnic conflicts in recent decades have ranged from oppression and ethnic cleansing to accommodations of ethnic claims through affirmative policies, special forms of representation, power sharing, and the integration of minorities. One of the most sought after, and resisted, devices for conflict management is autonomy. This book uses select countries including China, Canada, South Africa, former Yugoslavia and Australia to explore the dialectics of ethnicity and territory as mediated by a variety of forms of autonomy.