After Universalism: Re-engineering Access to Justice

As state spending on legal services has come under pressure, so too has state commitment to equal access to justice. This volume brings together experts from around the world to look at what happens when the notion that justice should be available to everyone, regardless of means, is challenged by managerial and market paradigms and a general retreat from universal forms of welfare provision.

The book covers a broad range of topics, including unrepresented litigants, public defenders, self-help legal services, state- and market-based alternatives to legal aid, and the adaptation of common law court procedures to aboriginal culture. Drawing on original research from Australia, the United States and Europe, it emphasises the tensions between efficiency, equality, and justice.