Autumnal Gold:  Justice by Design

 

Helsinki’s renowned design week last month convened the world of design–architects, artists, interior designers and more– to consider the latest trends and future of design. There too were design lawyers and judges from across the globe gathered to hear from leading legal designers and consider how design can shape the legal systems of the future at the exceptional Legal Design Summit.   

Situated amidst the City’s fall abundance of lingonberries, chanterelles, and Dahlias, the convening yielded a bounty of its–own tools, methods, inspiration and compelling advocacy for advancing justice through design.

Though using design thinking and user-centered approaches to build legal and justice solutions is not novel, the discussions revealed a golden thread, evident across the diverse geographies and institutions assembled—-the power of design approaches to propel societal systems change and  advance justice and equality, a global corps well equipped to employ them, and alignment on the imperative to act. This potential merits more attention from policy leaders and changemakers working to solve the challenges of our time. Most are inextricably intertwined with law.

What is Legal Design?

Leading legal design authority Margaret Hagan explains that “legal design is the application of human-centered design to the world of law, to make legal systems and services more human-centered, usable, and satisfying.”[1]

Through a multidisciplinary approach, legal design uses design principles to address common challenges faced by legal systems and the people who use them such as inaccessibility of legal language, complex processes that are difficult to navigate, and the presence of barriers, which prevent people from accessing the law and justice. It supports development of point solutions, e.g., development of user-friendly court forms as well as systemic solutions to complex problems such as the need for new ways for people to address specific types of legal needs, e.g., online dispute resolution mechanisms for small claims.

Where can you find legal designers and what do they do?

Legal designers work in a variety of fields.  These include:

• Legal professionals: Lawyers, judges, paralegals, and other legal experts who use design thinking to improve their work processes and create better legal products and services.
• Designers: UX designers, product designers, and other design professionals who bring fresh perspectives to legal problems and collaborate with legal experts to create user-friendly legal products and services.
• Academics: Researchers, educators, and clinicians who study the intersection of law and design and develop new theories, methods, and tools for the legal design field and/or support innovation and testing of new approaches.
• Entrepreneurs: Startups and companies that develop innovative legal and justice products and services to make law more accessible and affordable to everyone.
• Government: Public institutions that use legal design to improve access to justice, simplify legal procedures, enhance public trust in the legal system, and improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Sociologists & Behavioral Scientists who study the attitudes, behaviors, and social contexts of individuals as they navigate legal systems. They conduct empirical research to identify barriers to understanding and accessing legal resources, analyze the impact of legal structures on specific populations and provide recommendations for designing legal tools, interventions and communications that resonate with user’s lived experiences and behavior.

Justice by Design: How can legal design advance justice?

Legal design can facilitate “design for justice” by supporting proactive efforts to build systems, processes, and tools, which prioritize fairness, access, equity, and justice for all stakeholders. It can enable justice by design by:

Uncovering Systemic Injustice. Legal design can help identify systemic injustice through user research and by reviewing the assumptions, data, and approaches, which serve as the basis for current systems.  

Fostering Multidisciplinary Collaboration.  By convening experts from design, law, technology, sociology, behavioral science and other fields, legal design brings diverse perspectives to problem definition and solution development stimulating more holistic approaches, which consider societal implications.

Catalyzing Shifts in Mindsets. Legal design principles and practices can expand perspectives and infuse governance and law with more empathetic, user-centered and just approaches.

Enabling Civic Engagement & Citizen-User Participation. Legal design can provide frameworks for public participation in the development of law, policy, and related processes, as well as in the identification of legal needs and solutions and foster approaches that embed public notions of justice.

What types of global challenges can benefit from incorporating justice through design? 

Embracing legal design approaches and engaging designers in legal and governance systems and solutions design can catalyze inclusive, equitable and justice-driven digital and justice transformation.  This “justice lens” can contribute to global initiatives to address complex challenges in:

Artificial Intelligence Governance, Compliance & Development of Ethical, Fair & Equitable AI. Legal design can make pivotal contributions to AI governance schemes by helping ensure that frameworks address real world user concerns and broader societal considerations, promote justice, equity, and fairness, are transparent, can be understood by diverse individuals, and are tailored for different sectors. Legal design can also support the development of accessible tools for reporting bias and concerns.

Digital Transformation & Governance.  As governments transform and use technology to design new ways of serving citizens, legal design approaches can help ensure that new systems and services are justice-centered, maximizing access to law and the needs of citizen-users. 

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Equality.  Legal design prioritizes understanding the needs of all stakeholders. Its inclusive approaches can help harness the perspectives of marginalized groups and those who have been traditionally excluded. By including and empathizing with these groups, legal design fosters just solutions that better respond to diverse needs.

 

 

 

 

[1] Margaret Hagan, Law by Design.