In the spring of 2024, Advokatrådet released a report titled “Retssikkerhed i Grønland”, which contains 25 recommendations aimed at strengthening legal security and the justice system in Greenland in the short term. The recommendations are intended to address some of the structural challenges within the Greenlandic justice system while balancing high legal professionalism with the principle of proximity, which forms the basis for Greenland’s legal system.
The implementation of Advokatrådet’s recommendations will result in increased costs in the Greenlandic justice system. This will require allocating additional funds, as the Greenlandic justice system has not been transferred to the Greenlandic self-government.
Advokatrådet has commissioned Copenhagen Economics to investigate the financial needs for implementing the recommendations. The financial requirement corresponds to the additional funds that would need to be allocated, considering the funding already set aside.
Our analysis shows that Advokatrådet’s short-term recommendations will entail a long-term financing need of DKK 34.3 million annually. The recommendations result in a permanent increase in costs of DKK 37.7 million, while already allocated funds reduce the actual requirement for funding by DKK 3.5 million.
In the short term, the need for funding is lower than the long-term financing need. This is because recent agreements for the courts, the prison service, finance bills, etc., have already allocated funding for the coming years, which overlaps with Advokatrådet’s recommendations. A number of these agreements will expire between 2025 and 2028.
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Advokatrådet is the governing body of The Danish Bar and Law Society.
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