Strategic litigation — litigation that brings about structural change in regulation, policy, or practice — is more than filing a court case and hoping for the best. By carefully coordinating action on different fronts, including campaigning and generating public debate, litigation becomes an important catalyst in pushing causes forward which otherwise see little progress or attention.
While the courts are powerful agents for change, marginalised communities are often unable to leverage the full potential of litigation for their causes and campaigns. Legal fees are high, processes are complex, and the legal profession continues to inadequately reflect our society.
When litigation is used, it often does not serve communities or centre their needs. An intersectional approach is lacking, and there often is an uneven power dynamic between communities and those doing the legal work. This means that litigation tends to be closed off to and not driven by the communities that could use it the most. For example, current climate litigation does not address the needs of marginalised groups, and the marriage equality movement has been critiqued for privileging whiteness and subordinating non-normative relationships.
Systemic Justice believes that communities should be leading on the litigation campaigns that concern them, and be able to access justice on their own terms. This is more than strategic litigation as we know it, or even “community-centred” litigation: Systemic Justice works with a model of community-driven litigation.
We litigate with our partners to achieve change by leveraging the power of the courts. Instead of having lawyers take over and set the agenda, we are jointly developing community-driven litigation campaigns to bring about structural change on issues of racial, social, and economic justice. In this process communities’ perspective and lived experience drive the work.
Recognising that structural change takes time, we enter into long-term partnerships and develop strategies that tackle root causes rather than merely addressing the symptoms of unjust and unequal power structures. When exploring a partnership, we will jointly discuss the following questions:
If we decide to move forward together, we will jointly design the strategy for the litigation campaign. We will work together closely as the effort unfolds, in which Systemic Justice will take care of the legal aspects of the campaign.
We litigate with our partners to achieve change by leveraging the power of the courts. Instead of having lawyers take over and set the agenda, we are jointly developing community-driven litigation campaigns to bring about structural change on issues of racial, social, and economic justice. In this process communities’ perspective and lived experience drive the work.
Recognising that structural change takes time, we enter into long-term partnerships and develop strategies that tackle root causes rather than merely addressing the symptoms of unjust and unequal power structures. When exploring a partnership, we will jointly discuss the following questions:
If we decide to move forward together, we will jointly design the strategy for the litigation campaign. We will work together closely as the effort unfolds, in which Systemic Justice will take care of the legal aspects of the campaign.
During the consultation process, that ended in summer 2022, priorities for action were shared by organisations, movements, and collectives working on racial, social, and economic justice.
Informed by this process, the urgent need to address injustices and the absence of intersectional litigation work to address them has brought us to two initial areas of focus for our work: climate justice and social protection.
The previous post in this series looked at the principles underpinning our approach to community-driven litigation, and the building blocks for the process we’re developing
Our approach to research and knowledge aspires always to bear witness, by being there embracing our ‘social connectedness, developing a sense of fellow membership, of community, solidarity and belonging together’ with those who experience systemic injustice.
We believe that communities should be leading the litigation campaigns that concern them. But what does community-driven litigation entail?
It is our anniversary! Today, 7 December 2022, Systemic Justice is officially one year old.
The previous post in this series looked at the principles underpinning our approach to community-driven litigation, and the building blocks for the process we’re developing
Our approach to research and knowledge aspires always to bear witness, by being there embracing our ‘social connectedness, developing a sense of fellow membership, of community, solidarity and belonging together’ with those who experience systemic injustice.
Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll keep you up-to-date on our work!