Between Law and Society: Paralegals and the Provision of Justice Services in Sierra Leone and Worldwide

Abstract

Efforts to advance justice and improve the rule of law can be divided into two categories. One set of efforts-by far the better funded and more established of the two-focuses on state institutions, on improving the effectiveness and fairness of the courts, the legislature, the police, the health and education systems, etc. A second set of efforts, sometimes termed legal empowerment, focuses on directly assisting ordinary people, especially the poor, who face justice problems. There are two primary reasons for complementing state-centered reforms with this second type of undertaking. First and most simply, institutional reform is slow and difficult, and there is a need to tend to those wounded by broken systems not yet fixed. Second-and this reason conceives of the poor as agents rather than as victims-lasting institutional change depends on a more empowered polity.