Last issue
JUNY 2025
STUDIES
Del fuerte a la plaza: abrir la justicia cuando la democracia se agrieta. Introducción al Monográfico sobre Justicia Abierta
Authors: SHARP VARGAS, Peter and ROS-MEDINA, Jose Luis.
Author: VELILLA ANTOLÍN, Natalia.
ABSTRACT: This article analyzes in a global manner the crisis of justice in Spain, which is going through one of its worst moments. Besides the shortage of personnel resources –one of the countries in the European Union with the fewest judges per inhabitant, below the European average– it has to be added the high rate of litigation, the lack of responsiveness and a nineteenth-century judicial organisation which has not adapted to a changing society. This scenario is fertile ground for distrust in the system, which citizens perceive as highly politicized and subject to serious interference from the other branches of government and the press. The politicisation of justice and the judicialisation of politics do not augur an improvement in the public perception of independence of the Judiciary.
KEYWORDS: CGPJ, Judicial Career, Judicial Independence, Judiciary, Lawfare.
Author: PANTIN, Laurence.
ABSTRACT: Mexico’s judicial reform, which essentially proposes the removal of all judges in the country within two years and their replacement by people elected by popular vote, was justified on the grounds of the need to democratize the Judiciary and legitimize it. After describing the context and content of this reform, this article argues that the experience of judicial elections in the United States and Bolivia does not support the idea that this method enhances the legitimacy of judges. Instead, we argue that open justice can strengthen this legitimacy, both from a foundational and an outcome perspective, in accordance with Rosanvallon's (2011) distinction.
KEYWORDS: Judicial Elections, Judicial Reform, Legitimacy of the Judges, Open Justice, Mexico.
Justicia abierta un concepto nuevo en Ecuador
Author: TAPIA RIVERA, Emma Teresa and CALLE TAPIA, Milton Daniel.
ABSTRACT: Throughout Ecuadorian history, justice has been seen as something alien to citizens. It could only be understood and dealt with by a very limited "elite" of lawyers and judges who were seen as unreachable and not interested in making their rulings accessible to the people. The less people understood about it, the better. Nowadays, this situation has not changed. Not only is justice still seen as something distant, but now with the addition of an additional component, the entire justice system has fallen into disrepute. As a result, users no longer trust it. For all these reasons, the aim of this article is to demonstrate the urgent need for a paradigm shift in justice. Citizens need to trust it again. The only way to achieve this is by making all the elements that make up the justice ecosystem intertwine with each other to obtain an open, transparent, collaborative and participatory justice system.
KEYWORDS: ecosystem, Open justice, open government, participation, transparency.
La complejidad de la escritura en el contexto judicial: hipótesis y consecuencias
Authors: POBLETE OLMEDO, Claudia; VERGARA BARRALES, Carlos and SOTO BERGARA, Guillermo.
ABSTRACT: Complexity is a distinctive feature of writing within judicial context. More particularly, convoluted syntax of judgments and rulings, with an excessive use of embedded clauses, has been identified as one of the main factors that hinder their comprehension. The present work proposes firstly that this morpho-syntactic complexity should be addressed from the micro unity, i.e. from the paragraph microstructure. Secondly, some reasons proposed to explain that difficulty are explored and a new hypothesis is advanced: based on a syntactic-grammatical analysis, it is proposed that the problem lies in the translation of the rhetorical structure of the genre as a whole to its parts, i.e. from the sentence to the paragraph.
KEYWORDS: judicial language, legal writing, plain language, syntax.
Desafíos para la agenda de justicia abierta
Author: HERRERO, Álvaro.
ABSTRACT: During last decade, open justice has taken the limelight in the agenda for judicial reform and public management. The rise of the Open Government Alliance played a central role in this development. This article aims at analyzing the main challenges for the deepening in the implementation of the reforms on transparency, citizen participation and accountability in the judiciary. For that purpose, main reform initiatives within judiciary powers are assessed and it identifies the more important gaps in terms of knowledge, collaboration, impact and methodologies. The article reviews the status of the main reforms and current initiatives and it manages to identify nine obstacles and/or opportunities to be addressed in a coordinated and articulated way in order to speed up the implementation of the reforms. These are (i) generating the necessary knowledge for the consolidation of the agenda; (ii) overcoming the challenges of the notion of judicial independence as a factor of isolation; (iii) addressing the heterogeneity of judicial governance models; (iv) the consensual definition of priorities for reform; (v) connecting open justice with other priority issues on the judicial agenda; (vi) generating synergies with the Sustainable Development Goals; (vii) fostering innovation governance models in the judiciary; (viii) achieving greater ownership of the agenda by judiciaries; and (ix) promoting the development of metrics for open justice.
KEYWORDS: Accountability, Citizen participation, Judicial Reform, Open Justice, Transparency.
INNOVATION AND GOOD PRACTICE
Author: FERREIRA DIAS, Thiago.
ABSTRACT: The last decade has seen a growth in the number of innovation laboratories in the public sector (i-labs). These labs apply new methods and forms of collaborative work to address complex social problems and promote transformations in public management and in the lives of citizens (Ramírez-Alujas, 2017 and 2025; Criado et al., 2018). This is an opportunity for the development of the philosophy of Open Justice that translates into adding public innovation and governance to the implementation of a set of mechanisms and strategies for justice, based on strengthening the principles of transparency and access to information, accountability, participation and collaboration. Thus, this paper presents an exploratory analysis of 77 innovation laboratories in the Brazilian Judiciary (PJB). A questionnaire was applied specifically to representatives of innovation laboratories within the judiciary. In addition, data was collected through interviews with public servants and members of the judiciary from different bodies of the judiciary, totalling 31 interviews. The results indicate that the actions undertaken by these laboratories focus on incremental innovations, mainly aimed at improving administrative processes, as well as radical innovations, driven by digital transformation and the adoption of new technologies. Furthermore, the data obtained through surveys and interviews show the absence of guidelines and plans to guide the systematic action of innovation laboratories.
KEYWORDS: Brazilian Judiciary; Innovation Lab; Open Justice; Public Innovation.
Author: CASTILLO VARGAS, Sara.
ABSTRACT: This article analyzes the trajectory of the National Commission for the Improvement of Justice Administration in Costa Rica (CONAMAJ). Since its creation in 1985, CONAMAJ has played a key role in modernizing and strengthening the Costa Rican justice system. Through various initiatives, such as promoting citizen participation, open justice, and conflict resolution, CONAMAJ has contributed to improving access to justice and strengthening citizens' trust in judicial institutions. The article highlights CONAMAJ's role as a change agent and an innovation lab. CONAMAJ has made significant strides in advancing open justice principles, becoming a regional model for promoting transparency, citizen participation, and innovation in the justice sector. The Commission's work has had a profound impact on strengthening the rule of law and fostering a more just and equal society.
KEYWORDS: Citizen Participation, Costa Rica, Open justice, governance, judicial innovation.
INTERVIEW
Elisa De La Nuez, secretaria de la Fundación Hay Derecho. (Entrevistador: Miel A. Elustondo)
SELECTION BILBIOGRAPHY
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