Success in the visualisation of administrative justice

Academics from Bangor Law and the school of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering have gained recognition for their collaborative work in data visualisation. The joint research was awarded with the “honourable mention” prize at the 2021 international conference on visualisation (IEEE VIS), which took place between the 23rd and 27th October 2021. The annual visualisation conference (VIS) is organised by the Institiute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). This year the conference was held virtually; streamed live through YouTube, interactions on Discord and questions through Slido.

The research work investigated how to visualise administrative justice paths of redress. Administrative justice concerns the relationships between individuals and the state. It includes redress and complaints on decisions of a child’s education, social care, licensing, planning, environment, housing, and homelessness. The group have created a tool, called Artemus, that visualises pathways of redress in administrative law.

Professor Jonathan Roberts (Professor in Visualisation) said “It was an honour to receive this award. Explanatory visualisation has the potential to display these paths of redress in an obvious way. The idea is that people can see, understand, and explore different potential paths of redress through our online tool (Artemus). The visualisation challenge was complex because data is spread across many documents, laws, guidance, and policies and requires judicial interpretation. Consequently, there is not a single database of paths of redress to visualise.”

The Artemus administrative justice explanatory visualisation tool, showing the network diagram (left) and an example pathway (right)

Dr Sarah Nason (Senior Lecturer in Administrative Law and Jurisprudence) said “We are delighted to receive this recognition. In the research, that was funded by the Nuffield foundation, we engaged with many lawyers, judges, local authorities, charities, commissioners, ombuds, and Welsh Government officials. As such the work brought together many people across Wales, who are interested in improving access to administrative justice. I would like to thank all those people who engaged with our project and helped to make this work a success.”

Publication date: 10 November 2021