Administrative Justice without Borders: CCAT Conference Report
Bernard Quoroll, a member of the AJTC, attended the fourth international administrative justice conference organised by the Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals in May this year. This is his personal account of the conference.
I was privileged to be able to attend the Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals “Administrative Justice without Borders” conference recently in the Winter Olympics city of Vancouver. The title gives a clue as to the preoccupations of the 400 or so delegates, mainly from Canada and the USA.
The tribunal scene in the USA and Canada differs from ours in several ways. It has a much greater emphasis on tribunals concerned with workers rights and health related benefits – perhaps not surprising when you consider the nature of industry in Canada, the fact that they share a common boundary with the USA and that both countries are hosting growing numbers of guest workers from Asia and Latin America.
There is in consequence a growing preoccupation not just with access to the tribunal system from the point of view of language barriers, cultural difference and enforcement of rights but also with the implications of transient populations, many of whom see themselves as working in host countries for limited periods. The potential for exploitation in terms of discrimination and health and safety and the difficulty, not just in enforcing rights to compensation after return to a country of origin but also of achieving cooperation with governments which may not have the same relationship with its citizens as in Europe, might at first seem to offer few parallels with United Kingdom experience. However, with the accession of many new countries to the European Union and rights of free movement and employment, obvious parallels begin to emerge. Perhaps even more so because changing demography in Canada, Europe and the USA is making the hosting of foreign workers an economic and social necessity.
The figures for population diversity in Vancouver presented to the conference point to the fact that the non-Canadian population is set to outstrip nationals in the foreseeable future. This is forcing a fresh appraisal of attitudes to young and often highly trained individuals guest working in countries and the need to encourage them into higher level employment. Reflecting this, the title of one of the seminars at the conference was ‘Foreign Trained Professionals: Why having a Heart Attack in a Taxi is a Good Thing’!
What was refreshing for me was that technical issues and social policy issues were freely discussed at the same conference and that participants were as ready to debate the social causes of the challenges they faced as the technical issues relating to access to justice.
Perhaps the most obvious difference was in the relative lack of nationally adopted values and standards in some federal countries. Some states, for example Quebec seemed to have achieved a more cohesive approach to issues like judicial independence by enshrining it in their constitution. Others are facing concerted political attempts to be able to select and remove judiciary without cause – a preoccupation with delegates throughout the conference. Recent experience in developing cohesion within the United Kingdom tribunal system following the Leggatt Report “Tribunals for Users: One System, One Service” (2001) was also reported upon by Lord Justice Robert Carnwath, the Senior President of Tribunals, and universally approved as a direction from which Canada in particular might learn. But whilst some aspects of Canadian, US and Australian practice might seem from a UK perspective to leave room for reform, there are many other areas where we could benefit from collaboration and where the variety of approaches and innovation could provide a test bed for new ideas.
It was clear that considerable work is going on in many states around access to justice issues. Not just overcoming language and disability barriers but more innovatively in respect of cognitive understanding, even to the point where in one US state, case law is pointing to a personal obligation upon judges to respond proactively to the access needs of individuals or face personal liability. That might be a bit rich for England but it did give me cause to reflect when observing a schools admission tribunal hearing in England recently. An elderly parent suffering serious disability was unable to attend the hearing to plead his child’s case for admission to a particular school. Careful checks had been made to confirm that he did not intend to attend. He had had an opportunity to make written comments but it was clear from the nature of his representations that he did not understand what the panel needed to hear. Other parents attending in person were able not just to make their case but also answer questions which the panel needed to have answered. Is there room for some development in United Kingdom practice? Certainly Professor Hazel Genn thought so when presenting her findings on “Tribunals for Diverse Users” to a packed forum.
A short report such as this cannot do justice to the range of issues discussed. It extended from the implications of an aging society for increases in the workload and emphasis of specific tribunals (for example concerning ageism); portability of pensions; conflict of laws; the use of proportionate dispute resolution; the privacy of personal information crossing the borders of a global workplace; even through to the implications of climate change for population movement. What was clear is that we have many issues in common and much that we can learn from each other. Perhaps also the time has come to try something similar on a European basis hosted in the UK. For a more authoritative report go to the CCAT website at www.ccat-ctac.org.
And finally, no conference report would be complete without a word about the host city. I will have enduring memories of the “airport in the harbour” as the float planes landed and took off in a seemingly continuous loop. It was noticeable that delegates from all over Canada were checking out real estate prices in this clean confident city with much to be proud of, not least its firm assertion that the Winter Olympics will be delivered, on time, within budget and making a profit. I will also cherish the memory of our Chairman Lord Newton engaging in one of the more participative sessions of the conference with his eyes closed and, like the rest of us, being “driven” round the hall by a fellow delegate tapping him on various parts of his anatomy. (He had tried to reach the door but could not get there fast enough!)
Link: Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals