Direito em Movimento - Volume 18 - Número 3 - Edição Especial

186 Direito em Movimento, Rio de Janeiro, v. 18 - n. 3, p. 176-198, 2020 - Ed. Especial ARTIGOS (GARTH, 1980, p. 171-202). Does reform connected with IJ in any way enhance ‘party capability’ or support ‘creative conflict’? Should it? There is some evidence that in Brazil it can do so, including with First Nations people. The State of Roraima established a project in the Indige- nous community of Maturuca (Raposo Serra do Sol) which was a “ Polo Indígena de Conciliação ” and sixteen Indigenous conciliators were trained in family issues, debts and domestic violence. Over 80% of these cases were successfully resolved through conciliation and this initiative received an award in the “ Conciliar é legal ” project held by the National Justice Council (CNJ). According to Judge Aluizio Vieira the benefits were mutual: This pre-trial conciliation project is good both for Indigenous pe- ople as well as the Judiciary because it recognises conciliation by Indigenous communities, which is vital for respecting cultural di- versity, while at the same time lowering judicial caseloads and ad- ministrative costs through diverting cases to informal conciliation mechanisms. (VIEIRA, 2019) I wish to suggest that the real contribution of itinerant legal services, such as IJ (and also small claims courts) and PLS, is likely to be seen in their role as a ‘legal laboratory’ (ECONOMIDES, 1980), a space in which creative legal minds can experiment and improvise with new forms of adju- dication, and new forms of legal service delivery, while also offering future lawyers (and sometimes clients too) the opportunity, quite literally, to learn about ‘the law in action’. 17 Here in Australia, IJ is sometimes known as ‘bush courts’ and illustra- tes the flexibility, adaptability and creativity of judges, though - because of the racist history I alluded to earlier - some sceptics call these courts ‘apar- theid courts’ (SIEGEL, 2002; MARCHETTI & DALY, 2004). 18 These courts may be held in very remote locations, and often are not housed in a court building, sometimes they operate in a simple tent. Cases frequently 17 While these initiatives invariably benefit law students’ education, one can question just how useful they are for clients, both in terms of the quality of legal advice (how is the accuracy of student advice guaranteed?) but also in terms of whether they canmeet the demand or need for legal advice, which is so great that the mobile clinic could never be more than “a drop in the ocean” (a criticism I heard made of the mobile student legal advice service offered by the University of Latvia Law Faculty in Riga in 2004). 18 See also ECONOMIDES (2016, p. 158).