Education against legal poverty to achieve the SDGs

Abstract

The last few years have seen the proliferation of empirical studies on access to Justice, prompted by the goals identified under the Sustainable Development Objectives. The data show how far we are from achieving the right to Justice for all, both in its strict sense (the right to obtain a judicial decision), and in a broad sense of access to rights. The States guarantee such access by underwriting the costs of the so-called ‘free justice’, although this is manifestly insufficient, since only a small part of the legal issues is the result of a controversy and/or will require a judicial ruling. Basic legal education can help reduce the cases of poverty or legal illiteracy, which act as risk factors for social exclusion.