The Dividends of Justice

Across the globe, access to justice remains a massive challenge. According to the World Justice Project, around 5.1 billion people – two thirds of humanity – lack effective access to justice. The imbalance is striking: Europe averages 22 judges per 100,000 inhabitants, while India has 15 per million, and some sub-Saharan African countries have fewer than one per 100,000.

This “legal divide” often mirrors a deeper economic one. The OECD estimates that unresolved disputes cost economies between 0.5% and 3% of GDP every year 1 . Economists Arnaud Deseau, Adam Levai and Michèle Schmiegelow set out to go further: to measure the link between access to justice and economic growth. Drawing on nearly seventy years of data from 143 countries, their study is the first to quantify, on this scale, how the presence of judges can become a powerful driver of development.

About

Dialogues économiques is a digital journal published by the Aix-Marseille School of Economics (AMU, CNRS, EHESS, Centrale Méditerranée). A gateway between academic research and society, Dialogues économiques provides all citizens with the keys to economic reasoning. Articles are published every two weeks.

Beyond Laws on Paper

Access to justice means being able to claim one’s rights. For a woman facing domestic violence, it means real protection. For a small business owner, recovering unpaid debts. For an employee, defending a contract in court. For a farmer, proving ownership of land.

In many countries these rights exist in theory, but remain out of reach in practice. Overloaded courts, endless procedures, prohibitive costs, corruption: the gap between written law and lived law creates what researchers call a “justice deficit.” In the absence of an effective justice system, it is often might that makes right.

Local studies had already delivered their verdict

Before this global analysis, several studies had highlighted the economic impact of justice, but only at regional or national level. In Brazil, a 2014 study found that opening new civil courts boosted local entrepreneurship by cutting trial delays. In France, economists observed that closing a quarter of labour courts led to a decline in business creation and employment in affected areas. Other research has shown that it is not just the law itself, but the real independence of judges that drives growth. What had been missing was a long-term, worldwide measurement, which, by bringing together for the first time a broad range of international data on access to justice, is the gap this new study aims to address.