ACCESO Tec
ACCESO Tec is a laboratory for legal innovations that build the rule of law in the Americas.
ACCESO Tec designs and showcases technological advances in the administration of the law with a view to increasing access to justice for all members of civil society.
Using the latest technologies, ACCESO has been developing public information campaigns partnering with international aid agencies, the Organization of American States, and the Bolivian, Chilean, German and U.S. governments, among others.
ACCESO Tec and Transparency
As an extension of the legal reform process, ACCESO Tec is based on the concept of open and transparent access to justice. To accomplish this, the system must contain amongst other things security and accountability features, such as password protected access, specific user identification and a usage log to discourage corruption and limit special treatment of certain classes of citizens. The result will be promotion and public recognition of an equitable social landscape with respect to the law and legal process.
Proyecto ACCESO is strengthening the Americas by strengthening the rule of law. Our globalized world requires the rule of law as its dialtone. The rule of law is good for the protection of human rights and intellectual property rights. With the harmonization of national laws, the emergence of international law, and new technologies for conflict resolution, there is a need for judicial innovation. ACCESO Tec’s team does more than mere technology transfer.
With our interdisciplinary collaboration we create best practices that can be modeled for use throughout the Americas. ACCESO Tec takes the lead in legal innovations.
With our partners in the technology world, we guide, develop and implement the latest in legal technology applications that assist in the administration of justice and strengthening of the rule of law. From oral advocacy to mediation clinics, from legal education for undergraduate law students to continuing professional education, ACCESO has been working to promote the rule of law and ensure a consistent approach to judicial innovation.
As an example, we are working to increase public awareness and confidence in the judicial reform now underway in Chile. Despite some governmental efforts, the reform process has not been adequately explained to the general public. Few people outside the judicial sector know their rights, nor understand the new roles and institutions that have been created in the reform process.
We believe that there is a window of opportunity to transfer technologies and methodologies from the developed world in order to assist Chileans and others in Latin America to quickly implement a system to archive and disseminate evolving case law for the new oral trials. For close to two hundred years, law has been practiced and met out by courts in a closed, non-transparent and secret manner. Such is the civil law tradition in criminal procedures. ACCESO Tec is working to reverse the trend of opague, closed and written trial procedures to encourage more participation, efficiency and transparency.
ACCESO Tec’s Future
Some of the technological devices ACCESO Tec is developing to assist in the legal reform process include:
A Handheld Legal Information Device – This innovation is our ACCESO Personal Data Assistant (or "P.D.A."). Over the past four years, we have designed criminal code personal handheld devices, wireless statute citators, caselaw management systems, judicial administration aides, and lawyer skills training modules. ACCESO is on the cutting edge of new legal technologies.
A Digital Case Registry - The Digital Case Registry may be used as a teaching tool for law schools, continuing legal education programs, and professional development for judges, judicial administrators and other members of civil society.
A Legal Case Catalogue and Management System - The System we are developing will be built upon a centralized national database platform for managing all ongoing and past legal activity. From inception of a case, the System will manage facility, litigation and resource scheduling (both financial and human), as well as records maintenance. It will utilize the latest in wireless hardware and software to expedite communication to all stakeholders.
Our goal is to create an efficient case management system with defined rules and procedures and with built-in accountability to ensure that all citizens of Latin America get equal access to justice. Our proposed digital video case registry can be used as an educational tool, whereby best practices in critical legal skills, such as oral advocacy and negotiation, can be viewed, analyzed and employed.
Modern production techniques will enhance creative teaching/learning and allow the reuse of case data across media with a potential for a revenue stream to cost-effectively fund social programming, including much-needed public information campaigns. As the public begins to use this transparent and organized system as well as our other innovations, positive experiences will lead to trust in the judicial system, in general. Trust in the judicial system and the promotion of the rule of law will lead to economic stability and ultimately to foreign investment.
With economic stability and foreign investment comes employment stimulation and growth. Everybody wins when there is rule of law – human rights are protected, investment and economic growth increases and institutions are strengthened.
