Recently, the World Justice Project (WJP) released its 2016 Rule of Law Index. The research initiative assesses the performance of 113 nations across the world on a range of metrics related to the rule of law.
According to the WJP:
The country scores and rankings for the WJP Rule of Law Index 2016 are derived from more than 110,000 households and 2,700 expert surveys in 113 countries and jurisdictions. The Index is the world’s most comprehensive data set of its kind and the only to rely solely on primary data, measuring a nation’s adherence to the rule of law from the perspective of how ordinary people experience it.
The United States did moderately well in a range of categories, as follows:
18th in the overall Rule of Law ranking;
12th for “open government”;
13th in the “constraints on government powers” ranking;
20th for “absence of corruption” ranking;
31st for “order and security”.
Where it performed terribly was in the “accessibility and affordability” of civil justice. Out of the 113 nations ranked, the U.S. came in at a woeful 94, nearly thirty slots lower than last year, tying nations like Egypt and Tanzania, and coming in just ahead of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Read the full report here.
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