Abstract
or starting a business, chances are the law has something to say about it. And yet, the majority of the world never gets to hear it. According to a 2008 United Nations report, four billion people worldwide lack meaningful access to the rule of law, and almost 60 percent of the world’s population is excluded from the institutions and services that govern them. When legal systems fail to reach the majority of the world’s population, it leaves a gaping hole in fundamental governance. This legal divide marginalizes people, communities, and institutions that are unable to engage with even the most basic government services. As a result, billions of businesses, homes, and crimes exist outside the purview of government protections. The UN estimates that in some places, these informal or “shadow” transactions represent as much as 90 percent of business. Perhaps more concerning is that this is most prevalent among those who need legal safeguards the most. Remote and poor communities, traditionally the people most vulnerable to abuse and exclusion, face additional obstacles to justice. Distance, education, and cost present often insurmountable challenges to accessing institutions or basic services. The increasing cost of legal services has forced these people to rely on overwhelmed publicly supported legal aid, public defense, or administrative service providers. These legal services, where they exist, are increasingly being cut or drastically altered due to budget reforms. Even in comparatively effective legal systems, a shortage of resources within publicly supported legal services results in the functional exclusion of large swaths of most populations. The international community is candid about the fact that after decades of programming and billions of dollars, the rule of law has yet to reach the bottom of the pyramid. As a result, the poor remain unable to defend their rights, livelihoods, homes, and families. These populations, however, also present the greatest opportunities for growth, empowerment, and inclusion. Mobile phones are empowering rural and
Highlights
The international community is candid about the fact that after decades of programming and billions of dollars, the rule of law has yet to reach the bottom of the pyramid.[4]
The idea of integrating SMS into legal services is relatively new and untested, so the expected benefits are based on the efficiencies observed in analogous communication structures. mHealth, or the application of mobile technologies to health processes, is one of the more advanced branches of m4d, and so it is used here to illustrate the ways SMS can be integrated into remote service delivery
What is clear from initial innovations, is that the approaches that have the greatest effect on improving access to legal institutions are those that design their services to meet last-mile populations where they are, whether in their community or on their mobile phones
Summary
These basic educational and perception barriers often prevent last-mile populations from even attempting to seek legal protections These inefficiencies are exacerbated by the need to travel long distances, wait for service providers to be available, and engage with complex, iterative processes. For people who are unable to take time off work or leave a family in order to travel long distances, often more than once, these seemingly simple inefficiencies determine whether they are able to report a crime, register a business, or keep their home In recognizing these difficulties and seeking innovative ways to resolve them, a number of legal systems are beginning to bridge the communications divide that complicates and prevents the provision of last-mile legal services. Innovations in approach, service provision, and communications technology, as they relate to overcoming the barriers faced by last-mile populations, can have a disproportionate impact on last-mile populations’ ability to access justice
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