The Justice Studies Center of the Americas is launching a competition designed to measure the impact of civil procedure reforms on the practice of law in the region in the context of the program “Improving Access to Civil Justice in Latin America,” which JSCA is developing with the support of Global Affairs Canada.

The goal of the competition is to encourage multidisciplinary research on how the practice of law in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean has been impacted by civil justice reforms.

The goal is to make available research and experiences in the legal field that can expand the perspective on the role that these professionals play in ensuring that individuals in Latin America have access to justice and contributing to the design of public policies aimed at eliminating the barriers to access that remain.

All proposals related to one of the following topics will be considered to be of particular interest:

-The impact of the use of oral civil procedures on the configuration of attorneys’ offices: new professional skills and the reorganization of the law office.

-Changes to fee collection systems and incentives related to the practice of law

-Evolution of the legal services market in a context of civil procedure reforms

-The practice of law and gender, equality and non-discrimination -Measures for organizing law offices and providing user services 

-The importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the reorganization of law offices

The studies can adopt various modalities, including exploratory studies, descriptive studies and case studies. The projects may have qualitative, quantitative or mixed approaches.

Special consideration will be given to research projects that involve exploring the practice of law in Latin America in an empirical manner in a specific country or at the comparative level. The deadline for proposal submissions is November 15, 2020.

Click here to download the guidelines with all of the relevant information.