ISBN: 9788120336971    Publisher: PHI LEARNING PVT. LTD. Year of publishing: 2008     Format:  Hardback No of Pages: 188        Language: English

This book tries to reunite and rebuild faith in public institutions by highlighting the availability of judicial remedies for the poor and the excluded in South Asia. The central idea of this book is the inevitable link between judicial capacity and good governance. It critically discusses the state of 'access to justice' to the poor and addresses the problems of various structures and procedures approached by the poor to seek justice. The formal system remains locked in the whimsical fantasies of the lawyers and the state structure which aborts the rule of law for the privileged and works in open defiance of the increasing disempowerment of the poor due to an overwhelming judiciary.

This book highlights the growing need for restorative justice as against retributive and thus emphasizes a more intensive action research in alternative dispute resolution systems (ADRs). This argument is further developed to assess the competence of many people's led informal institutions of judiciary such as Saalish in Bangladesh, Jirgas in Pakistan or Lok Adalats in India. The book is also radical in its approach towards the use of alternative dispute resolution systems to support marginalized communities, including women in distress, through mediation and arbitration which are gaining a new intellectual space in justice discourse.

This book is an indispensable guide to administrators, and social scientists interested in governance and legal research. It would also be useful for those working in the non-state sector of pro-poor reforms.
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Amita Singh is Professor of Law and Governance at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She has several books and publications to her credit (including the latest book Administrative Reforms: Towards Sustainable Practices (Sage 2005)) in the area of policy implementation, grass-roots governance and administrative reforms. She serves on the Board of Research Committee 4 on Bureaucracy in International Political Science Association (IPSA). She is the serving Academic Advisor to NAPSIPAG (Network of Asia Pacific Schools and Institutes of Public Administration and Governance). She is the Project Director of 'Governance Knowledge Centre' of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). She was awarded the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) Award 2007 and Millennium Award for Women in Public Services 2007.|Nasir Aslam Zahid is currently Dean, Hamdard School of Law at the Hamdard University, Karachi. Formerly Chief Justice of Sindh High Court and later judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, he is known for resigning from the Supreme Court instead of taking oath of the office in accordance with General Pervez Musharraf's Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). He has had a very long distinguished career in adjudicating on issues of the poor in governance and prison reforms.
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