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

189 ARTIGOS Direito em Movimento, Rio de Janeiro, v. 18 - n. 3, p. 176-198, 2020 - Ed. Especial public services, and therefore developed mathematical models to guide public servants as to the optimal location for schools and hospitals re- lative to population density and communications infrastructure. In the 1980s, we applied such techniques to determine the optimal location for para-legal services in South-west England in order to maximise resour- ce allocation (BLACKSELL, ECONOMIDES & WATKINS, 1991, p. 191-192). These techniques have been applied in the past to guide deci- sions on the location of courts and, I would suggest, should be applied to planning routes and centres for itinerant legal services in all of its va- riant forms, from IJ to itinerant public defenders and student legal clinics (THOMAS, ROBSON & NUTTER, 1989). II Consultative structures to plan legal service delivery and apply research While this more scientific approach to planning resource allocation is likely to be more efficient, this alone will not be enough. It is vital that legal service delivery is informed both by experts and ordinary citizens with local knowledge, and that service providers listen carefully to consumer views of po- tential clients,whether from Indigenous or remote communities. 20 State policy on legal service provision should ensure implementation of national minimal standards, but these standards must be applied flexibly, taking account of li- mited resources, local circumstances and legal cultures. Choices will have to be made and some regions and communities may well have quite different legal needs and priorities, depending on what most threatens the local eco- nomy or environment. Regional policy therefore will need to review local re- sources, infrastructure and monitor local performance but, more than this, the understanding and experience of legal needs of those at the periphery need to 20 There are also practical problems of conducting legal needs studies of itinerant populations, as Pascoe PLEA- SANCE (2020, p. 351) notes: ‘Sometimes surveys are aimed at particular population groups of interest, such as those on low incomes, or living in particular localities or forms of housing. Identifying appropriate sample frames can be particularly problematic in the case of itinerant groups, or those living at the periphery of society. For example, a potential problem in Brazil, experienced in the conduct of the 2008 Australian survey … might be effective inclusion of indigenous people; or populations such as those living within favelas.’. Note also recent attempts in Ecuador to create laws to strengthen Indigenous rights in relation to oil and mining companies control over Indigenous territory but without seeking consultation or the consent of Indigenous peoples themselves (KOENIG, 2020).