With the call for more customisation, responsiveness, and socially effective justice, the legal professions have had to deal with far-reaching reforms and policy measures. This development is addressed in the most recent issue of the magazine Recht der Werkelijkheid, of the Dutch Association for the Social Scientific Study of the Law (VSR), which was edited and introduced by Peter Mascini, Professor of Empirical Legal Studies at Erasmus School of Law and Nienke Doornbos, Assistant Professor of Sociology of Law at the University of Amsterdam. In this magazine, it can be read that the dynamics that these changes bring about are surprisingly well reflected in the professional role, with the latter becoming an obsolete concept.
Renowned researchers discuss their empirical research findings on how these changes affect the professional attitudes and behaviours of legal professionals.
Jos Hoevenaars, PhD researcher at Erasmus School of Law, reports on his research into how subdistrict court judges handle cases of litigants without a lawyer. If necessary, the subdistrict court judges lend a hand to litigants, but in doing so, they monitor their role as neutral arbitrators. According to the subdistrict courts, full party autonomy is seen as unrealistic and contradictory to finding the truth. In addition, Eline Linthorst and Lieke Oldenhof, both affiliated with Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, show that the open standard of customisation in the Social Support Act, which is intended to dejuridise, has the opposite effect in practice. According to the authors, there is a rule paradox: instead of fewer, more detailed rules are being introduced in the form of new, elaborated standards frameworks for domestic help and policy instruments.
Karen Geertsema, Yasemin Glasgow, Marijke ter Voert, all affiliated with Radboud University Nijmegen, and Ashley Terlouw, chair of the Research Center for State and Law (SteR), show that immigration judges have taken a more pragmatic attitude because of the corona measures. They may also be more case-oriented in the future instead of session-oriented and will hold more sessions online. Arnt Mein, affiliated with the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, discusses the changing expectations regarding the role of government lawyers. These expectations have shifted from a reactive and detached role as guardian of legal quality (the legal gatekeeper) to a more flexible, solution-oriented, and cooperative role (the legal enabler). The latter sounds nice, but it also has downsides. Klaske de Jong, of the University of Amsterdam, discusses the role change that representatives of administrative bodies are undergoing because of the more responsive case handling of the administrative court. A lot has changed, especially in the preliminary phase of the appeal case.
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The most recent issue of Recht der Werkelijkheid magazine can be found here (in Dutch).
The issue has also been turned into a podcast, which can be found on the Law and Society website.