Access to Justice and Legal Aid Systems: Contemporary Challenges in Inclusive Governance

access to justice, legal aid, inclusive governance, online dispute resolution, rule of law, legal technology, comparative legal systems

In the last few decades, Access to Justice has emerged as one of the fundamental principles of democratic rule of law and governance. But in both developed and developing countries millions are effectively barred from the legal system by financial, geographical, cultural and linguistic barriers and information. This paper, an overview, draws together empirical and theoretical research work on legal aid system and traces the profile of current challenges in the provision of inclusive law services. The paper will combine analysis of eight jurisdictions (Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Brazil, South Africa and Nigeria) for state-funded models, mixed public-private schemes and tech-enabled innovations. It specifies seven different categories of structural barriers and analyses their mitigation potential from regulatory, institutional and technological lines of action. The paper also examines current challenges arising from 4IR, such as artificial intelligence (AI) supported applications and online mediation and arbitration (ODR) and their impact on the provision of justice in an equitable manner.