The International Legal Aid Group (ILAG) was formed in 1992 by a small group of academics and administrators led by Professor Alan Paterson, University of Strathclyde, and Mr Wouter Meurs, The Netherlands Ministry of Justice. Its first academic members included many of the most eminent researchers in the developed jurisdictions, drawn from the Working Group on Legal Professions of the ISA Research Committee on Sociology of Law, which had an established track record in comparative legal aid research. Initially legal aid administrators from The Netherlands, Scotland and England formed the ILAG administrative membership. Its membership has now grown to include CEOs and other policy-makers from Australia, Canada, the United States, Sweden, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa.

In 1994 the Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands participated as co-host with ILAG in organising an international conference at The Hague which brought together legal aid scholars and researchers, CEOs and agency policy makers. Participation was restricted to 40 attendees on an invitation only basis. The conference was one of the most prestigious ever held in the field. Following two and a half days of private conclave, attendees participated in a larger one-day open conference in Amsterdam, led by the Minister of Justice and leading members of the legal profession and practising lawyers in The Netherlands.

Following on the success of The Hague conference, a second ILAG meeting was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, in June 1997. Those attending the Edinburgh conference included CEOs of legal aid programmes in Australia (NSW), England and Wales, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and Scotland, together with most of the leading legal aid researchers in the world. The Lord President of the Court of Session (the Chief Judge of Scotland) hosted a reception for all conference participants. Once again, the ILAG meeting was followed by a one-day conference open to the local legal profession. In Edinburgh, this conference was opened by the Scottish Minister responsible for legal aid, and attended by the leaders of the legal profession and practising lawyers.

The Edinburgh conference confirmed the value of the ILAG meetings, and in June 1999 its third meeting was convened in Vancouver. The Vancouver meeting continued the proven model of facilitating interaction between leading academic researchers and legal aid administrators, including CEOs and policymakers, from legal aid programs in British Columbia, Australia, England and Wales, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United States, New Zealand and Scotland. The Vancouver conference focused on new proposals to address the ever-rising cost of legal aid. Topics addressed by participants included maintaining quality and ensuring value for money, prioritisation, rationing and needs assessment, contracting for legal services, exploration of the Canadian mixed delivery model, public defenders, litigation insurance, community legal services, alternative legal aid providers and emerging legal technologies.

The Vancouver conference received broadly-based financial support from such organisations as the Office of the Attorney-General (British Columbia), the Legal Aid Board (England), the Lord Chancellor’s Office (UK), the Canadian Department of Justice and the University of British Columbia. Significant ‘in kind’ support was provided by the Scottish Legal Aid Board, the University of Strathclyde and the Legal Services Society of British Columbia. Like previous ILAG meetings, the closed conference was followed by a Saturday open conference that was addressed by the Attorney-General of British Columbia, and attended by conference participants and members of the Canadian legal profession.

The fourth and latest ILAG conference was held in Melbourne, Australia, in June, 2001 and was designed to promote access to justice and other legal citizenship policies by promoting the cross-national, comparative lessons of how we can more efficiently and effectively fund, manage and deliver legal aid. In particular, the sessions covered: Achieving parity in access to legal aid for the poor and ordinary citizens; Cross-national experiences in pro bono services; Developments in models of legal aid delivery; Expenditure and service delivery priorities; Legal access through IT and other new technologies of service delivery; Linking current developments in legal aid management with other developments in public sector reform; The role of legal aid in managing civil justice; meeting the special needs of indigenous peoples; needs assessment in family, criminal and civil law matters; managing public legal aid in re-regulating markets for legal services; the role of community-based legal service delivery; the role of the legal profession in legal aid delivery

The Melbourne 2001 conference was restricted to 45 participants including participants from The Netherlands, Scotland, England, Canada, the United States, Sweden, Norway, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand. The Saturday conference attracted a range of lawyers in the public and private sectors who listened to a summary of the closed conference, accounts of legal aid in the Netherlands, Germany and the USA, criminal contracting in England and Community Law Centres. A round table discussion then followed with lively contributions on topics such as legal aid for asylum seekers and Legal Expenses Insurance.

The Harvard 2003 conference is designed to promote access to justice and other legal citizenship policies by promoting the cross-national, comparative lessons of how we can more efficiently and effectively fund and provide legal aid. In particular, the Harvard conference will consider developments in management and service provision in the world of the 'contracting' welfare state, in both senses of that phrase. Thus, the Harvard 2003 conference will build upon the successes of the earlier ILAG meetings and contribute to better-informed legal aid management, and more effective and efficient service delivery through consideration of topics such as:

• cross-national experiences in poverty legal services;
• needs assessment in civil and criminal matters;
• developments in models of legal aid delivery;
• recent experience in the use of contracts for delivery;
• expenditure and service delivery priorities;
• keeping the private profession interested in legal aid;
• new forms of delivery using the internet, unbundling, and on-line services;
• linking current developments in legal aid management with other developments in public sector reform;
• managing civil justice;
• the role of community-based legal service delivery;
• emerging areas of international relevance.