Trust in public institutions underpins stable societies and thriving economies — yet it is under strain across the OECD and beyond. This report calls for a responsive rule of law delivered through justice systems that keep pace with rapidly changing societies and make rights usable in practice, thereby helping rebuild confidence in justice systems and public institutions. It draws on the OECD Recommendation on Access to Justice and People-centred Justice Systems to chart a course towards fairer, more effective, and people-centred justice systems. The report highlights the urgent need to transform the justice system through visionary leadership, sustained political commitment, data and feedback and cross-sector collaboration. It shows how legal empowerment and prevention of justice problems can strengthen people’s ability to resolve issues, improve their experience of public services, and enhance economic competitiveness — especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. It explores how to design people-centred justice pathways and services that are accessible, data-driven and tailored to the needs of specific groups. Finally, it examines administrative justice as the vital interface between people and institutions, where fairness and responsiveness directly shape public trust. By promoting a responsive rule of law, countries can drive prosperity, improve public governance, support innovation, and help renew people’s confidence in public institutions.
Making Justice Systems More Effective and People Centred
Abstract
Executive summary
Trust in institutions is under pressure in OECD countries and around the world. This pressure also affects the rule of law, which is a hallmark of successful societies and economies. Since 2016, most countries have seen a decline in the rule of law, driven in part by a decrease in access to justice. Globally, two-thirds of the world population report not having meaningful access to justice, and in OECD countries alone an estimated 600 million people cannot resolve their everyday justice problems. Because justice systems are the delivery mechanism for the rule of law, they need to be effective in giving practical meaning to people’s rights. When people, businesses and communities cannot access the public services they are entitled to or resolve disputes quickly and fairly, trust in institutions erodes and rule of law declines.
A responsive rule of law underpins economic growth, business confidence, and innovation. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are crucial for most economies, but face systemic disadvantages when justice systems are slow, expensive, and unpredictable. Unresolved disputes, unnecessary regulatory complexity, and lack of tailored support can hinder their growth and competitiveness. The reverse is also true: they benefit from high quality regulations and a vibrant civic space. In practice, responsiveness is achieved through people-centred justice: early help and triage, proportionate pathways and accessible justice services and predictable enforcement. Investing in effective, digitally enabled, and tailored justice services reduces time, cost, and uncertainty, creates the predictability that SMEs need to thrive, boosting prosperity, market trust, and long-term economic competitiveness.
This report calls for the rule of law to become more responsive to people’s needs to meet the challenges posed by the rapid transformation of societies. Justice systems often prioritise institutional processes over people’s experiences, leaving them unable to meet contemporary expectations of fairness, accessibility, and responsiveness. A justice system that delivers a responsive rule of law in practice understands the justice problems people face, provides accessible and user-friendly pathways towards resolving them, ensures outcomes that are fair to all and that are perceived as fair and tracks impacts in people’s lives.
Transforming the justice system to ensure a responsive rule of law requires visionary leadership, sustained political commitment, and a shift from institution-centred approaches to people-centred justice. This, in turn, requires multiple actors, including many that have not traditionally been seen as part of the justice system, to work together and set shared goals to guide co-ordinated reform while respecting institutional independence. It also calls for redesigning practices around people’s needs, moving from top-down service delivery to justice pathways that address both practical and emotional concerns and deliver outcomes perceived as fair.
Progress further relies on strengthening transparency, participation and the use of data and evidence to build trust, accountability and learning. Open justice initiatives, including those aimed at engaging people in service design and delivery, as well as sound governance of justice data, and regular performance monitoring help systems respond to people’s legal needs and experiences. A diverse and skilled workforce that is recruited in an open and merit-based way and with high levels of integrity, collaborates across disciplines and is trained in communication, cultural competence and problem-solving is essential to promoting a responsive rule of law and addressing prevalent and often interconnected justice problems.
Legal empowerment enables people and businesses to know and claim their rights, prevent or de-escalate conflicts, and resolve many of their own problems, reducing pressure on the justice system. By narrowing the power gap between citizens and public service institutions, it improves people’s experience of public services, helps rebuild trust in public institutions and support for the rule of law. Legal empowerment also supports economic competitiveness: when SMEs increase their legal capability and have access to tailored services, they are better able to comply with standards, resolve disputes efficiently and benefit from regulatory protections. In effect, empowerment is the entry point through which the rule of law becomes usable and meaningful in people’s lives.
Enhancing a responsive rule of law through legal empowerment requires building people’s legal capability, promoting their access to justice, and shifting towards prevention, by enabling institutions and citizens to work together to identify and address problems earlier. Prevention of justice problems has not always been regarded by the justice system as part of its remit, but it is critical for individuals, communities, and businesses and for reducing the strain on scarce public resources. Justice systems that understand real legal needs, capabilities and outcomes can design more effective, people-centred services, anticipate demand, and address problems before they escalate - lowering time, cost, and uncertainty.
Improving people’s justice pathways requires a fundamental transformation in how justice system services are designed and delivered. While justice systems are complex, they are shifting towards approaches that adapt to people’s needs and capabilities, starting with legal empowerment and user-friendly processes. This includes accessible points of entry, plain-language communication, and guided or self-help tools that improve people’s experiences with the justice system. Robust data collection and analysis are essential to identify people’s legal needs and justice problems, understand which services work for whom, and adjust provision over time.
In many cases, resolving justice problems may not require the assistance of formal justice institutions such as courts and lawyers; it could often be more efficient, effective, and less costly, if they are resolved by other actors. Countries are expanding non-lawyer legal assistance, community-based and multidisciplinary services, and non-court solutions such as mediation and alternative dispute resolution. Services are increasingly tailored to the realities of diverse groups, including SMEs, people with disabilities, and children. Continued measurement of service performance and the introduction of feedback and learning loops will allow services to better reflect people’s changing needs.
Making administrative justice more people-centred is particularly important for governments grappling with decreasing trust in public institutions. Public services, such as housing, education, healthcare, benefits and other essential services are people’s most frequent point of contact with the state. Where delivery of these services does not work well or problems are allowed to fester, trust in institutions is at stake. Evidence from the OECD 2024 Trust Survey shows that perceptions of fairness hinge on how people are treated in these everyday interactions, making accessible and responsive processes central to restoring legitimacy. Administrative justice is therefore the frontline where a responsive rule of law is implemented day-to-day.
One of the core tasks of administrative justice services is to repair and sustain effective relationships between the state and citizens. This can be achieved by resolving disputes accessibly and efficiently, establishing clear and navigable pathways, and operating responsive complaint and oversight mechanisms that elicit continuous feedback. In doing so, systems can learn from patterns of grievance and feed insights into reform, improving service quality and accountability across government. The result is better public governance: higher resolution rates, fewer repeat problems, and greater trust.
