Survey Says: U.S. Lags on International Rule of Law
The United States lags significantly behind other developed countries in its adherence to international rule of law principles, according to a study released today by the World Justice Project.
The group’s Rule of Law Index (PDF), covering 35 nations, is thought to be the most comprehensive international survey of its kind ever produced.
The study scored the United States’ compliance with international law at 0.39 on a scale of zero to one—well behind the 0.66 average score for 10 other high-income countries in North America, Western Europe and Asia.
The U.S. outpaced those countries on how accessible its justice process is (0.72 vs. 0.68) and its laws that protect the security of property (0.87 vs. 0.85). On a dozen other measures of adherence to the rule of law, the U.S. trailed the other high-income countries, but only slightly.
The Rule of Law Index is the first survey “we’re aware of that measures adherence to the rule of law in a detailed and comprehensive way,” said Mark D. Agrast of Washington, D.C., who chairs the Rule of Law Index Team for the World Justice Project, in an interview with the ABA Journal. Information collected in each of the 35 countries covered by the index “tells us we have the data we need.”
The index is based primarily on surveys of ordinary citizens conducted in the three largest cities in each country and detailed interviews with experts in the law and related disciplines from each nation. The citizen surveys in particular sought to emphasize real-life experiences with government agencies, courts, law enforcement and other elements of each country’s justice system, emphasized Agrast. “We were not asking their philosophical views of the rule of law,” he said.
The report, which is being released at the World Justice Project’s meeting in Vienna, cautions against taking an overly judgmental approach to the findings. “No society, however advanced in other respects, has ever attained—let alone sustained—a perfect realization of the rule of law,” the report states. “Every nation faces the perpetual challenge of building and renewing the structures, institutions, and norms that can support and sustain a rule-of-law culture.”
The World Justice Project was launched by the ABA and other sponsors in 2007 with the goal of nurturing greater adherence to the rule of law worldwide as a path to creating communities of opportunity and equity. It has since become an independent organization.
Agrast and Juan Botero, staff director for the Rule of Law Index Team, told the ABA Journal that, while the index findings have a useful comparative component, especially between countries in similar socioeconomic circumstances, the index is not intended to be a ranking of countries from 1 to 35.
The comparison aspect of the index “has been a real challenge for us,” Agrast said. “We didn’t want to produce a U.S. News and World Report version of a Rule of Law Index. We’re looking to help countries reform rather than say, ‘You’re wonderful and you’re terrible.’ But referring to analysts, he noted, “Once you loose this data on the world, they’ll slice and dice as they wish.”
Even with today’s release, the index is still in its early stages, Agrast and Botero say. Statistical gaps for some of the countries surveyed so far are being filled in, and survey results will undergo additional fine-tuning and analysis before a final version of the current report is issued in early 2010.
Meanwhile, survey efforts are continuing in efforts to bring the total number of countries covered by the index to 100—accounting for 95 percent of the world’s population—by the end of 2011. The index is envisioned as an ongoing endeavor so that countries can use it as a measure of their efforts to improve adherence with rule of law principles.
The World Justice Project was founded by William H. Neukom of San Francisco, the former Microsoft general counsel who served as ABA president in 2007-08. The project initially operated with extensive staff and logistical support from the ABA, and with broad financial support from a number of sponsors.
In September, the project became an independent not-for-profit corporation, although it will continue to occupy space at the ABA’s office in Washington, D.C., through March 2010. Neukom, the managing general partner of Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants, continues to serve as president and CEO of the World Justice Project.
The other high-income countries with which the U.S. was grouped are: Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Japan, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Spain and Sweden.
