Technology for Legal Empowerment: A Global Review
Projects | Links: PDF (1.6mb)
The first global review of legal empowerment actors’ use of technology to give people information about the law, connect them with legal advice and provide them with legal services.
Legal empowerment is about grassroots justice — ensuring that law is not confined to books or courtrooms but is available and meaningful to ordinary people.
Around the world, many organisations are using technology to support legal empowerment efforts by:
- expanding their geographic reach
- allowing people to help themselves more effectively
- reducing costs related to hiring lawyers and specialist providers.
However, we don’t know enough about all the ways that technology is being used for legal empowerment worldwide, common trends, and what goes into a successful project.
Background
I worked with the Open Society Justice Initiative to research how legal empowerment actors worldwide are using technology to give people information about the law, connect them with legal advice, and provide them with legal services.
I led the research project, presenting it at
The full report is available for download, and you can read a summary online-first version of the report in The Engine Room’s library.
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Who is this for?
We created this report for:
- Civil society organisations working to increase access to justice who are interested in using technology in their work
- Governments interested in the role of technology to increase access to the law, courts, and legal assistance
- Funders looking to better serve their grantees
We’re conscious that long reports might not be the best way for the busy people to digest our research. So, we’re also sharing our findings through the Propeller Series. The Propeller Series is an email digest where we share key findings that land in your inbox once a week for six weeks from the day you sign up.
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Reception
Here’s a collection of comments on the report.
