Solution in Innovation – Innovation in Solution

We find ourselves at a crossroads. It’s a place where the majority of the world’s population struggles to access justice. This is because the way justice is delivered is painfully out of sync with the modern world, plagued by massive inefficiencies that ultimately make justice unavailable to those who need it most.

Can innovation be a solution?

The Sustainable Development Goals have set an ambitious target: justice for all, by the end of this decade. But, let’s be honest, achieving such a grand goal by sticking to the same old methods is a bit like banging your head against a wall and expecting it to move. We all know that’s not how progress happens. Indeed, several extensive research studies on this issue – such as a recent study from the Justice Action Coalition – have come to the same conclusion.

If universal access to justice is to be achieved within a foreseeable time frame, traditional approaches must either be abandoned or updated and augmented through out-of-the-box thinking. The world is changing rapidly, and our approach to justice needs to keep up.

So, will innovation be the key to achieving our access to justice commitment?

Now, I know the word ‘innovation’ may sound a bit daunting. This is because embracing innovation is typically seen as implying some type of change – and, because, for the most part, humans tend to not want to rock the boat too much. Innovation is also often confused with new technologies, but it is much more than the stream of fancy new gadgets flooding your life. 

What exactly is innovation?

Simply put, innovation is looking at a problem from a different angle. Although the word may carry connotation of releasing something ‘novel’ into the world, this is not inbuilt. All innovation is just new and different (re)combining of things that already exist. The novelty lies more in looking at the problem differently, and therefore being able to envision fundamentally different solutions.

Just take a look at Google. It didn’t automate librarians, most likely because the company did not ask how they could give people more books. Instead, it likely asked how it could give people the best access to all the world’s information, creating the most powerful search engine at the time and transforming not only the way people access information online, but how they talk about it. Their name became a verb.

And remember Henry Ford? He didn’t wrack his brain about how to make faster horses. Instead, he probably wondered how a greater number of people could enjoy the freedom to travel widely, unconstrained by the limits of a horse. The result was the pioneering cost-efficient production of personal automobiles on an unprecedented scale.

But of course, innovation isn’t limited to the realm of products, it also applies to approaches and tools. New ones can be developed, but the innovation often lies in taking approaches that proved to work in one field and pioneering them in another.

Take human-centred design, for example, a method that prioritizes user experience in product development, leading to solutions which are perfectly aligned with the user’s needs. Dubbed as “legal design” in the justice setting, this concept is ready to make waves by simplifying justice journeys, reducing costs, and responding to the needs of specific groups of users.

Another innovation gem is the adept application of standardization, with the development of responsive guidelines that have long been boosting quality and scalability in crucial fields such as health care and education. An increasing amount of comparative data from around the world is showing that justice problems are similar across different geographies, so standardization could also develop in the justice sector as a strong driver of efficiency and scale.

Can we scale justice?

Affecting some five billion people worldwide (with women disproportionately affected), the ambitious goal of closing the justice gap within the current decade requires strategies on an equally ambitious scale. Indeed, the sheer scale of the issue is one of the reasons that its resolution constitutes such a daunting task.

Can we continue to rely solely on human capacity, if we want to bring justice to billions more people?

Achieving this goal would appear to be quite impossible without the use of technology. One of the few studies looking into the application of technology in the justice sector, conducted by the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law, emphasizes the role of technology in expanding access to justice, with a focus on large-scale rather than high-tech solutions.

Yet, while it acknowledges the risks associated with technology, the study argues that the benefits far outweigh these risks, particularly in regard to technology’s transformative potential to boost response to the needs of marginalized groups, including women.

What do people truly need?

We need efficient justice solutions that are accessible to all who require legal assistance, where and when that assistance is required – an interpretation backed up by studies on people’s experiences with their justice system.

People want disputes settled, not prolonged legal battles; they favour durable solutions over attributing blame.

People typically need to access justice when life changes and all other arrangements fail. The challenges faced often occur close to home and require settling issues with people who the aggrieved party will continue meeting daily, so further escalation as a result of the justice process is the last thing that they or their community need.

In short, what people need is more justice, not more judges; more information on achieving effective solutions, not necessarily more information on rights and laws. It’s time for a redesign, and this redesign needs to be centered around people, bringing justice to all. To achieve this, savvy innovation will be indispensable.

IN CONCLUSION, LET’S PONDER A FEW QUESTIONS:

How can we embrace innovation as a friend, not an enemy?

Who should justice fundamentally serve?

Can women and their needs drive the innovations our justice systems need?

Let us know what you think: [ Click to reveal ]