Abstract

Sir Andrew Leggatt's review of tribunals in 2001 highlighted the role of participation in realising the objective of 'tribunals for users'. This paper critiques the conceptual field of participation partly based on a review of ideas of ‘participation’ as a legal rather than political concept, and partly based on primary research on the participatory experiences of tribunal users. Secondly, it develops the conceptual position that tribunals should be regarded as a ‘hybrid’ form in terms of participation; political insofar as power is at stake, legal insofar as norms and access are at stake, yet with further qualities (in particular as regards user emotional rather than just practical or intellectual experience) that indicate the need to develop a particular sui generis participatory model. Finally, the paper proposes precisely such a model.