University of Otago Legal Issues Centre - Te Pokapū Take Ture - Research

The Legal Issues Centre undertakes research in a range of projects within New Zealand, Australasia and internationally.

Our main empirical research project is investigating the pace of civil litigation in New Zealand but we plan later to draw comparisons with trial length in other jurisdictions.

The pace of civil litigation in New Zealand project (Kim Economides, Alfred Haug)

Professor Kim Economides is currently undertaking research into the pace of civil litigation in the New Zealand court system. The aim is to identify efficient uses of court time and factors that can be linked to the timely disposal of cases. Both qualitative and quantitative research techniques are planned, with a statistical analysis of factors affecting case processing times supported by interviews with key stakeholders. The appointment of Professor Alfred Haug (Department of Economics, University of Otago) as co-investigator will allow the project to consider whether wider economic conditions have any impact on the pace of civil litigation in New Zealand. Sir John Hansen, Professors Mark Henaghan and Kevin Dawkins, and Barry Allan are consultants to this project.

Other current research projects

• The cost of litigation, collective redress (class actions) and third party funding (Kim Economides, Barry Allan, Leah Hamilton)
• Court user national surveys (Saskia Righarts, Mark Henaghan, Sir John Hansen, Shana Fonnesbeck, Les Neilsen)
• Disputes tribunal study (Saskia Righarts, Mark Henaghan)
• Lawyer discipline and regulation of legal services (Donna Buckingham, Selene Mize, Kim Economides)
• No-fault loss-allocation and consumer disputes (Kim Economides, Warren Forster)
• The law reform process and applied 'socio-legal' research in New Zealand (Kim Economides)
• Psychological costs of the legal process (Kim Economides, Donna Buckingham)
• The process of compulsory psychiatric treatment (John Dawson)
• Representing justice in film and media (Hilary Radner, Michael Robertson, Kim Economides)
• Civil Case Progression Times in New Zealand [2011 pdf report] (Rachel Laing, Saskia Righarts, Mark Henaghan), which was launched at parliament, April 2011.

Doctoral Research Projects

• By-passing courts and expedited procedures for civil justice (tba, Kim Economides, Donna Buckingham)
• Litigants in Person in the New Zealand Civil Courts (Bridgette Toy-Cronin, Kim Economides, Richard Mahoney, Stuart Anderson, Dr Tarja Viitanen)
• Psychological stress in litigation (tba, Kim Economides, Nicki Taylor)
• Policy and process in employment and family relationship disputes (Susan Robson, Mark Henaghan, Paul Roth, Kim Economides)

For more information on research by specific Centre members, please visit our profiles.

Thought Leadership

UOLIC has also initiated a "Thinking outside the (Lunch) Box" seminar series at Otago University in order to promote creative thinking when searching for solutions to the problem of how best to improve access to justice. In the Autumn of 2011 the Centre plans to launch a forum in Wellington to lead national debates on the reform of the justice system and delivery of legal services to New Zealand's citizens.

Research Collaboration

Affiliated Academics and Independent Bodies

UOLIC is in the process of building a global network of national, regional and international legal scholars, practitioners and policymakers interested in promoting access to justice and, wherever possible, engages with policy and scholarly developments that serve this objective:

International Links

• Research Programme in European and Comparative Civil Justice Systems: Professors Kim Economides and Mark Henaghan participated in the July 2009 International Conference on Litigation Costs and Funding, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies and Institute of European and Comparative Law, University of Oxford. National reports on New Zealand have been contributed to this project and to the conference on "Collective Redress & Litigation Funding" held in Sydney and Canberra in December 2009.
• Comparative Project on Disciplined Lawyers: Donna Buckingham, Selene Mize and Kim Economides are collaborating with an international group of scholars comparing lawyer discipline across civil and common law systems and in 2010 attending meetings in Paris and Stanford. Further international meetings are planned, including the annual Law & Society Association meeting that meets in San Francisco in 2011.
• Effective Regulation of Lawyers' Ethics in Hong Kong: Lessons from England, Australia and New Zealand
  Kim Economides is a co-investigator with Dr Richard Wu (Hong Kong) in a research proposal currently before the Hong Kong Research Grants Council looking at the regulation of lawyers' ethics in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and England. The international team also includes Dr Adrian Evans (Monash) and Dr Grace Leung (Hong Kong).
• Rural Legal Services Project: Kim Economides is collaborating with policymakers at the Australian Law Council and Australian researchers based at the ANU (Assoc Prof Simon Rice), Deakin University (Dr Richard Coverdale, who has recently been awarded a Victorian Law Foundation grant to establish a Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice) and USQ (Prof Reid Mortensen, Caroline Hart) investigating ways of delivering effective legal services to rural populations. This follows an important conference hosted by Deakin University in Warrnambool, South Victoria in November 2010 which launched a Rural Law and Justice Alliance. Our aim is to collaborate with members of the Otago Branch of the New Zealand Law Society in developing policies on rural justice that will serve New Zealand's remote and rural communities.
• Large Law Firms Project: Kim Economides is part of an international team of researchers based in Australia, the US and the UK looking at the ethical infrastructure of large law firms. A proposal has been submitted to the Australian Research Council.
• Legal Capacity Building Programme/Gambia Bar: Kim Economides is interested in legal service provision for the developing world and in 2010 participated in a project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) building Legal Capacity in The Gambia. Apart from strengthening legal capacity in developing countries this work can also assist experimentation with new models for delivering legal services in advanced justice systems. In January 2010 he was Special Guest of Honour at the seminar and conference organised by the Gambia Bar Association and delivered a public lecture at the new Law Faculty in the University of The Gambia (UTG). The Otago Law Faculty is assisting with a project developing the law library at UTG and advises on curriculum development.

United Kingdom

• Kim Economides was advisor to Lord Hunt's review of lawyer's regulation in England and Wales. Lord Hunt's review of legal regulation has come out in support of all 24 of Economides's recommendations for reforming the ethical training of English solicitors: see pp 97-99 of Lord Hunt's final report, published in the UK on Monday 5 October 2009. Furthermore, the idea of a legal Hippocratic oath, also supported by Lord Hunt, has been publicised by the International Bar Association.

Global

• Kim Economides is a member of the International Legal Aid Group (ILAG) and attended its Wellington conference in April 2009, at which Justice Minister Simon Power announced the Bazley Review of Legal Aid. Professor Economides made a formal submission to the Bazley review commenting on the review's interim discussion paper and has published an article in the New Zealand Law Journal (also published in the ILAG newsletter) assessing the review's final report. He also made a submission on the draft Legal Services Bill.
• Kim Economides is a Founding Director of the International Association of Legal Ethics (IALE) whose mission is to promote teaching, research, vocational training programs, and policy initiatives concerning legal ethics.

University of Otago Legal Issues Centre Research Networks

New Zealand & Australia

Learned Societies

• The Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand

Research Centres

• Socio-Legal Research Centre, Nathan Campus, Griffith University
• The John Fleming Centre for Advancement of Legal Research, ANU College of Law
• Law Reform and Social Justice Program, ANU College of Law
• Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice, Deakin University, Victoria
• The Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law, University of New England

Individuals

• Associate Professor Tim Dare, University of Auckland
• Dr Mark Rix,  University of Wollongong
• Associate Professor Mary Anne Noone, La Trobe University
• Peter Cane, Australian National University
• Simon Rice OAM, Australian National University
• Hon. Michael Kirby AC, Sydney
• Mai Chen, Chen Palmer
• Graham Taylor, Barristers.com
• Jim Guest, Downie Stewart

International

Learned Societies

• Research Committee for the Sociology of Law
• Law & Society Association
• Canadian Law and Society Association / Association canadienne droit et société (CLSA/ACDS)
• Socio-Legal Studies Association
• Dutch and Flemish Association for the social scientific study of law
• International Association of Legal Ethics (IAOLE)

Research Centres

• Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford
• Center on the Legal Profession, Stanford University
• Network for Religion in Public Life, University of Exeter
• Centre for Empirical Legal Studies, University College London
• Oxford Centre for Family Law and Policy, University of Oxford
• Centre for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, Durham University
• Access to Justice, Tilburg University
• Centre for Welsh Legal Affairs, Aberstwyth University
• Centre for Independent Social Research (Law and Society), St Petersburg
• International Legal Aid Group (ILAG)
• Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, Fordham University New York
• Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment
• Sir William Dale Centre for Legislative Studies

Individuals

• Dr Esther D. Reed, Exeter University
• Dr Sue Prince, Exeter University
• Dame Hazel Genn, University College London
• Professor Richard Moorhead, Cardiff Law Schol
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sibel HACIMAHMUTOGLU, Hacettepe University
• Professor John Flood, University of Westminster
• Associate Professor Livia Holden, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)
• Dr. Helen Xanthaki, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London
• Professor Michael Bohlander, Durham University
• Professor Vincenzo Varano, University of Florence
• Professor Herbert M. Kritzer, University of Minnesota
• Francis Bennion
• Professor W. Wesley Pue (University of British Columbia)
• Professor Trevor C W Farrow, Osgoode Law School, Toronto
• Richard Cornes, Essex University