Access to Justice

This volume is a combination of interdisciplinary contributions from academia and legal practitioners about assessing justice in developing countries and one ex-colonizing country. The examples from Britain, Burundi, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa and Sudan point out the need to recognize that each culture has its own sense of rule of law and access to justice. In contrast to the many works which concentrate on structures and norms, this edited volume highlights the importance of the perceptions of the litigants and the court personnel for improving access to justice. Non-lawyer support personnel as shown in the examples in the book are key figures in the processes of access to justice. Hence, the book makes an important contribution to identifying basic elements that are overlooked in judicial reform schemes. The training of non-lawyer support personnel should be given priority over or at least the same priority as the training of lawyers.