At its core, the Rule of Law guides how citizens interact with each other and with their governments, requiring justice systems to provide for the fair, equitable, and peaceful adjudication of disputes among citizens as well as between citizens and governmental bodies. The Rule of Law also limits government power and protects the unalienable rights of individuals.

Our work in this complex space draws on decades of experience in building and reforming institutions such as courts, judicial councils, judicial training institutes, and anti-corruption councils, and promoting meritocracy and efficiency. We also place great emphasis on the public demand for justice through partnerships with non-governmental organizations to monitor courts, advocate for reforms and provide legal services. Across this work, we embrace a people-centered approach to improving access to justice for all.

WHAT WE DO

Support Strategic Litigation

We help our partners use strategic litigation to advocate for policy changes and drive societal reforms. We advise on overall strategy, proper national and international legal forums, case selection criteria, public outreach and access to pro bono representation. We also share best practices and insights across countries and connect groups working on similar issues. Our strategic litigation support helps people and communities address matters such as land and environmental rights; internet freedom; femicide; police brutality; discrimination based on disability, age, or sexual orientation; freedom of expression; and limiting Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP).

Improve Access to Justice

Justice is often and systematically beyond the reach of the poor and the vulnerable. We address the urgent need to expand the breadth and quality of legal aid by helping our partners provide advice and representation to thousands of people who could not otherwise afford such assistance, in both civil and criminal matters. We train state legal aid lawyers and non-governmental groups to improve the quality of their representation and expand their reach through online legal aid directories and legal assistance resources. We incorporate people-centered approaches to justice, such as community needs surveys, to increase communications and engagement between courts and the citizens they serve. We also help partners develop systematic court monitoring tools that promote accountability and greater civic engagement in the delivery of justice.

Reduce Wrongful Detention

Courts must hold people to account for illegal conduct, while ensuring that no one is wrongly detained or convicted. To address excessive pre-trial detention, which leads to prison overcrowding, loss of income and family hardships, we work with courts to develop databases and other tracking systems to improve the flow of information between correctional authorities, detainees, and their families. A related area of interest for us is systematically reducing wrongful convictions globally by building on the success of “innocence organizations” that have helped exonerate more than 3,000 wrongfully convicted persons in the United States and have promoted reforms such as changes to police procedures that reduce incidences of eyewitness misidentification.