The purpose is to:

• Increase the efficiency of the court system;
• Promote better management of all aspects of the legal system (e.g. strategic, human resource and operational management) through the introduction of a legal information system;
• Promote greater fairness and adaptability in the legal system with respect to prevention, settlement, sentencing and rehabilitation

Scope and Target Group

This is a regional project with discrete activities in individual countries. The countries encompassed in this project are those that are members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States which include Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. The project will benefit all the citizens of the region, however, some components will focus on issues related to youth and women.

The project will be targeted at both legal institutions and specific communities within the OECS. Within the legal system, the project will focus on developing the capacity for the expedient, fair and transparent management of conflicts. Its primary partners will be the Attorneys General and the District Courts, the Chief Justice and members of the Supreme Court, the judiciary, Bar Associations, Ombudsmen and civil society organizations and individuals interested in legal issues.

Project Description

The project will be developed on an iterative basis and will include a mix of short-term and long-term technical assistance, capacity building, training, equipment. While each member country will receive some assistance under the Project, the budget will not accommodate comprehensive initiatives in all components in all countries. The project objectives address the issues of efficiency and fairness. The project includes both country-specific components and regional components.

The project will have three technical components focusing on court efficiency, a strategic management and legal information system, and complementary measures to conventional justice responses. Together these components are intended to allow participating states to use more effectively their scarce legal resources, find appropriate solutions to their individual needs, and address equity issues.

A pilot project approach will be used. During the design phase, criteria and preconditions for the selection of pilot projects will be established. The project will bring the various parties together to allow them to discuss the problem, evaluate alternative solutions, agree on likely models, and implement a pilot project or projects to test one or more of the models. After testing the model and incorporating any lessons learned, it should be possible to replicate in other countries.

Court Efficiency

Key themes addressed through this component:

• Development and implementation of up-to-date case management practices to ensure that cases proceed in an effective way through the court system from their initiation to a final disposition;
• Modernizing the recording, filing, storage, and retrieval of court records;
• Improving the system of recording and transcribing the evidence of court hearings (moving from handwritten notes of judges to a court reporting system);
• Systematize the recording and distribution of Eastern Caribbean case law and develop the means and capacity of law professionals to access legal data bases (access to jurisprudence).

Legal Information and Strategic Management

The establishment of base-line data and the development of an on-going system to collect and distribute law-related statistics will provide policy markers and program managers of the region with a reliable source of information that will guide them in their work. The information available will support better planning, adequate human resources management, the establishment of performance standard, as well as the monitoring of the system as a whole. With reliable baseline information, and with a system to collect, interpret, and disseminate information on a regular basis, it will also be possible to evaluate the results of donor projects.

Complementary Measures to Conventional Justice Responses

Improving the efficiency and fairness of the justice system in the Eastern Caribbean can be aided by the adoption of measures that relieve some of the pressures on the formal legal institutions, notably the courts and prisons. This component would support a variety of activities that contribute to prevention and early interception (particularly with respect to youth and domestic violence), to settlement of disputes, to alternative sentencing, and to those other measures that restore offenders to a productive role in their society.