Source: Open Society Justice Initiative

The Open Society Justice Initiative believes that litigation can be used to reinforce the fundamental human rights that underpin an open and just society.

In order to help lawyers working on human rights issues, we are developing a series of “template briefs” which offer the legal framework for litigation that seeks to bring domestic justice systems and practice in line with international legal standards.

Our first template brief focuses on early access to legal representation in Europe for people accused or suspected of crimes. It provides the current European and international legal standards, and we encourage lawyers to use the research and arguments in this brief to support domestic litigation.

The Justice Initiative has gone to every effort to ensure our information is accurate. However, this brief is provided for information purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. The way you use this brief will depend on the details of your case, your client’s situation, and specificities of your domestic legal framework.

This brief will be translated into Spanish, Italian, Turkish, German, French, Russian and Hungarian. If you have any questions or feedback about the brief, would like a translated version of the brief in another language, or would like to keep the Justice Initiative informed about cases in your country that deal with access to legal assistance, please contact Marion Isobel at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it