The Instrumentalities of Equal Access to Justice: Defending Democratic Cooperation

Abstract

The point of this Chapter is to carve out political principles that could ground the duty to, at times and provisionally, pause, cool down and listen, as a specific political obligation. The Chapter argues that: first, expanding people’s real opportunities of accessing justice has a value that is dependent on, but not only instrumental to, the value of protecting institutional and social arrangements that allow the effective cooperation between all persons on the basis of their equality; second, social interest and political focus on access to justice has an epistemic value, since it points to perspicuous evidence on the actual functioning of legal and political institutions and on the possible effects of legal reforms; and, third, consistent efforts to realize effective access to justice for all in the space of capabilities have an expressive value, since they embody the ideals of a democratic culture. These three political principles thus specify the political content of the duty to pause, cool down and listen: We should model public institutions in access to justice, the chapter argues, as a means to protect people from unequal social relations, as a means to protect the epistemic capacities of public institutions, and as a means to express a democratic culture in dispute resolution.