The UB and the Department of Justice, Rights and Memory create a chair to assess the social and economic impact of the proper functioning of the Administration of Justice

The UB-DJDM Chair on Evaluation of the Social and Economic Impact of Justice Administration was created to become a national and international benchmark in the knowledge and promotion of the functioning of the Administration of Justice in Catalonia as a public service.

Thus, in the field of research, the construction of indicators to evaluate the Administration of Justice will be encouraged; scientific production in this field will be promoted through articles and doctorates, and scientific cooperation between the UB and the Department of Justice will be improved.

Moreover, the Chair aims to improve the training of the Administration of Justice sector in the field of institutional performance indicators and impact assessment, as well as to encourage the interest of undergraduate and master’s degree students of the UB’s Faculty of Law in the subjects of the Chair. Finally, actions will also be promoted to optimise the quality of public debate and to disseminate the impact of the Administration of Justice to society.

The Rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Guàrdia, is convinced that this Chair will help to enhance the value of the Administration of Justice as a public service of the first order: “it is an excellent platform for obtaining solid and transparent indicators that help to consolidate public confidence in justice”.

The Minister of Justice, Rights and Memory of the Government of Catalonia, Gemma Ubasart, stated that this initiative “is not a mere instrument for evaluating public policies, nor is it a one-time thing: it is a project created with a strategic vision, with a vocation for permanence; an ambitious project that strengthens the ties between the Administration and the academia to generate added value”.

Joan-Josep Vallbé, a professor at the Department of Political Science, Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law at the UB’s Faculty of Law and Director of the UB-DJDM Chair, said: “The Chair is a unique opportunity, firstly, to put the analysis of institutional data and the use of quantitative methods at the service of more informed and systematic public decision-making in the field of the Administration of Justice; and secondly, to provide the Administration of Justice with stable analytical tools to show to what extent an efficient and close Administration of Justice can have an impact on improving the lives of citizens”.

The Dean of the Faculty of Law, Andreu Olesti, noted that he “is convinced that the work that the Chair will carry out will establish criteria that will be a benchmark for evaluating and measuring the quality of the Administration of Justice”.

Iolanda Aguilar, Secretary for the Administration of Justice, concluded that “the proper functioning of the Administration of Justice has a very great social and economic impact. Investing in justice is investing in people’s well-being, and this chair will be a step forward in providing us with scientific evidence”.

Among the actions planned by the Chair are courses and seminars, prizes for bachelor’s and master’s degree final projects, the preparation of research reports, expert and dissemination conferences on the subject, and dissemination actions to publicise the chair.