First, legal analysis and findings may concern different issues depending on the focus and purpose of the programme. In OSCE trial-monitoring programmes, for example, these issues have included: • Compliance with fair-trial standards; • Implementation of domestic laws and reforms; • Functioning of the court system, including delays; • Issues related to facilities and resources; • Sentencing practices; • Professionalism of legal actors involved in proceedings; • Issues related to the functioning of collateral justice institutions such as juvenile, mental health, or correctional services; • Court police and warrant procedures; • The right to liberty and detention issues; • Judicial independence and impartiality (e.g., with regard to the prosecution of minority or ethnic groups); and • Issues related to the administration of justice regarding specific crimes such as war crimes, trafficking, corruption, and cases involving underlying human rights violations. However, even where different programmes have a similar focus, the manner of presentation of analysis in case reports may differ. For instance, depending on reporting methodology, findings may be conclusive (e.g., “the defendant was not provided with adequate instructions as to the right to an attorney”) or detailed, including a narrative description of the judge’s instruction, the defendant’s response, and an analysis of how the instructions complied with relevant provisions of domestic law and/or international standards. As a result, the presentation of legal findings and analysis may be structured in a number of different ways depending on the case reporting system. 6.3 Selecting a case reporting system Overall, there are two basic types of standardized case reporting forms or reporting systems. In general, the presentation of legal analysis may be classified into an “open” (or narrative) system or a “closed” (or questionnaire) system. In turn, the terms open and closed reflect different methodologies in analysing and reporting legal findings. Importantly, the differences relate to how legal analysis is reported, and not to the way case information or facts are reported, which may be similar in both systems. In the OSCE, both types have been employed by programmes reporting on identical issues. Therefore, the choice of a reporting system is primarily a function of methodology that is not directly dependent on the focus or subject matter of monitoring. The following subsections describe and compare these two basic reporting systems. 6.3.1 Open (or narrative-type) reporting systems A reporting system is open when the case report template provides little structure to the monitor and invites a narrative approach to presenting legal findings and analysis. By its very nature, this system allows a greater degree of monitor discretion in 70 Trial-Monitoring: A Reference Manual for Practitioners