Equal Justice – Fair Legal Systems in an Unfair World

A philosophical and legal argument for equal access to good lawyers and other legal resources.. Should your risk of wrongful conviction depend on your wealth? We wouldn’t dream of passing a law to that effect | but our legal system | which permits the rich to buy the best lawyers | enables wealth to affect legal outcomes. Clearly justice depends not only on the substance of laws but also on the system that administers them.. In Equal Justice | Frederick Wilmot-Smith offers an account of a topic neglected in theory and undermined in practice: justice in legal institutions. He argues that the benefits and burdens of legal systems should be shared equally and that divergences from equality must issue from a fair procedure. He also considers how the ideal of equal justice might be made a reality. Least controversially | legal resources must sometimes be granted to those who cannot afford them. More radically | we may need to rethink the centrality of the market to legal systems. Markets in legal resources entrench pre-existing inequalities | allocate injustice to those without means | and enable the rich to escape the law’s demands. None of this can be justified. Many people think that markets in health care are unjust; it may be time to think of legal services in the same way.