The Transparency Project is an educational charity1. Our objectives are
- To advance the education of the public in the subject of family law and its administration, including the family justice system in England and Wales and the work of the family courts, in particular but not exclusively through the provision of balanced, accurate and accessible information about the work of family courts and the facilitating of public discussions and debates which encompass a range of viewpoints.
- To promote the sound administration and development of the law in England and Wales, in particular, family law, by encouraging and contributing to the transparency of processes in the family justice system, contributing to public legal education concerning family law and matters of family justice, enhancing access to justice in matters of family law and by such other means as the trustees may determine.
To do this, we try hard to reach people who aren’t lawyers but who are interested in the law, family justice. and openness. We also try to talk to lawyers and those who work in the family justice system to help them understand why transparency matters and to encourage them to contribute to change.
We connect with people through a range of platforms and methods and, until recently, one of the main platforms we found most effective was Twitter (X).
Recently, X has become a platform that is poor at correcting or removing misinformation about a range of things, including law and justice. It has played a part in the sharing of threats toward legal professionals, the breakdown of law and order, and in encouraging violent and discriminatory behaviour. Largely as a result of this development, many legal professionals have left X entirely, and migrated to other platforms such as Bluesky, feeling they can no longer support a platform which undermines the rule of law.
Mindful of our objectives and duties to promote the sound administration of law, we share those concerns. However, in order to fulfil our other obligations, to promote debate, and to educate the public, we have to try to reach the wider public. Accordingly, the trustees have concluded that, at present, in order to properly fulfil our charitable objectives, we need to stay on X, so we can keep doing what we do. We need to keep reaching and talking to a wide range of people, not just lawyers, and not just those who already understand the law. It may be that, in future, we will be able to carry out our work without X, or that X will change for the better. We will keep this under review.
We will work hard in coming months to build networks and connections using both our established platforms and new ones, so that we can reduce our reliance on one platform. You can now find us on BlueSky at @seethrujustice.transparencyproject.org.uk and we will be trying our hand at making better use of Instagram too (@seethrujustice). We are still on Facebook, LinkedIn and will continue our weekly email (please sign up on our home page). We also plan to revive our history of running face-to-face discussions and debates that challenge the thinking of family justice professionals, and allow the families who have justice done to them to feel heard. Watch out for news of our 10th Anniversary event.
Please help us develop our connections and diversify and spread our reach by finding us on other platforms, new and old, and telling your friends and contacts about us.
TP Trustees
Making family justice clearer
30 August 2024
- The Transparency Project is a registered educational charity, regulated by the Charity Commission. We are an independent organisation in our own right, and operate independently. We should not be confused with other family justice projects which deploy the word ‘transparency’ (though we are generally supportive of such projects and may be involved with them). We do not receive any funding from Government or the judiciary and are currently entirely reliant on volunteers and small individual donations. This leaves us free to both support transparency initiatives and to challenge practice in the family justice system in furtherance of our charitable objectives. ↩︎
We have a small favour to ask!
The Transparency Project is a registered charity in England & Wales run largely by volunteers who also have full-time jobs. We’re working hard to secure extra funding so that we can keep making family justice clearer for all who use the court and work within it.
Our legal bloggers take time out at their own expense to attend courts and to write up hearings.
We’d be really grateful if you were able to help us by making a small one-off (or regular!) donation through our Just Giving page.
Thanks for reading!