Collaborative Research Networks
Organizers
Cari Hyde-Vaamonde, Brian Barry, Toby Goldbach
This CRN brings together academics and judges to focus on the changing role of judges in courts and tribunals in a wide range of jurisdictions. The CRN focusses on the increasing proactiveness by judiciaries and the significant evolution of the roles required of judges, over and above prototypical adjudicative functions. These roles can include the use and promotion of technology, case management, judge-led settlement conferences, mediation, other facilitative and responsive techniques to promote dispute settlement, as well as case-specific or more general procedural reforms, underpinned by a recognition of the importance of transparency, communication, and procedural justice.
The CRN collaboratively engages in dialogue and research to critically examine the concept and impact of “innovations in judging,” with a vision to contribute to justice sector reforms in a meaningful and influential way. Collectively, the CRN develops new comprehensive models, frameworks, and conceptual approaches to the diverse practices employed by the judiciary. Particular CRN research focus areas include the empirical assessment of judicial technologies broadly defined, comparative evaluation of judicial approaches to dispute resolution, and the impact of societal changes that call for modifications to the way judges do their work.