2010 Rule Of Law Index Published

After three years of development, testing, and vetting?including interviewing 41,000 people and over 900 “experts “in 35 countries?the World Justice Project haspublicly released the first annual WJP Rule of Law Index?.


The Index provides detailed information and original data regarding a variety of dimensions of the rule of law, which enables stakeholders to assess a nation?s adherence to the rule of law in practice, identify a nation?s strengths and weaknesses in comparison to other countries, and track changes over time.

The WJP Rule of Law Index? 2010 Report, the first of an annual series, was released on October 14, 2010 at the National Press Club in Washington DC.

Here’s the link to the document itself? http://worldjusticeproject.org/node/523

Here’s the press release in full about The Rule of Law Index?

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This publication is a new quantitative assessment tool designed by The World Justice Project to offer a detailed and comprehensive picture of the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law in practice.

The Index consists of 10 factors and 49 sub-factors, organized under the following set of four principles, or bands, which constitute the WJP definition of the rule of law:

The government and its officials and agents are accountable under the law;
The laws are clear, publicized, stable and fair, and protect fundamental rights, including the security of persons and property;
The process by which the laws are enacted, administered and enforced is accessible, fair and efficient;
Access to justice is provided by competent, independent, and ethical adjudicators, attorneys or representatives, and judicial officers who are of sufficient number, have adequate resources, and reflect the makeup of the communities they serve.
These principles are derived from a wide array of international sources, including the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights, that enjoy broad acceptance across countries with vastly differing social, cultural, economic, and political systems. It has also been vetted in WJP meetings on five continents.

While other indices cover certain aspects of the rule of law, such as human rights, commercial law, or corruption, they do not yield a full picture of rule of law compliance. The Rule of Law Index? is the first to treat the rule of law comprehensively.

The Index was made possible by funding from the Neukom Family Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GE Foundation, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and LexisNexis. A statistical sensitivity and reliability analysis of the Index data was conducted by the Econometrics Unit of the European Commission?s Joint Research Centre.

Path Forward

Version 1.0 of the Index, which included findings from a pilot conducted in six countries, was presented at the first World Justice Forum in 2008. The Index version 2.0 was presented at the second World Justice Forum in 2009. Version 2.0 featured preliminary findings for 35 countries, including seven countries in the East Asia and Pacific region; five from Eastern Europe and Central Asia; seven from Latin America and the Caribbean; two from Middle East and North Africa; two from North America; two from South Asia; five from sub-Saharan Africa; and five from Western Europe. Together, these countries account for 45 percent of the world?s population. The WJP Rule of Law Index? 2010 Report, featuring final findings for the same countries, was released on October 14, 2010.

Data collection efforts are ongoing in 35 additional countries, for a total of 70 countries, which will be included in the 2011 Index report that is scheduled for release in June 2011. The Index will cover 100 countries by 2012.

The World Justice Project has been encouraged by the steady progress made in building an Index that is comprehensive, robust and methodologically sound. We are gratified by the reception it has thus far received. Nonetheless, the Index remains a work in progress.

Building on the valuable engagement of the Forum participants and academic advisors around the world, the Rule of Law Index? 2010 Report was publicly released on October 14, 2010.The preliminary Rule of Law Index? 2009 Report , presented at the World Justice Forum II in Vienna in November 2009, is also available for download.

Methodology

The WJP?s Rule of Law Index? is based on the premise that it is necessary to use different but complementary data sources to best approximate the concept of the rule of law. Currently, there is no comparable data that fully covers all dimensions of the rule of law. The WJP Rule of Law Index? addresses this gap by constructing a new set of indicators drawn from two novel data sources:

A general population poll (GPP) conducted by leading local polling companies using a probability sample of 1,000 respondents in the three largest cities of each country.
Qualified respondents’ questionnaire (QRQ) completed by in-country experts in civil and commercial law, criminal justice, labor law, and public health.
The WJP methodology anchors expert opinion on rigorous polling of the general public, thus ensuring that the findings reflect the conditions experienced by the population, including marginalized sectors of society.

For more information on the methodology of the Rule of Law Index?, please download the WJP Rule of Law Index? 2010 Report, which was publically released on October 14, 2010.