Genn, Hazel; (2025) Let's not talk about Access to Justice: Unravelling the concept to create meaning in the non-legal world. [Lecture]. Presented at: The Neill Law Lecture 2025, Oxford, UK.

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Abstract

More than a decade after the 2012 changes to Legal Aid in England & Wales we are in yet another access to justice ‘crisis’. Post-pandemic, with an economic downturn, increased levels of poverty and developing public health crises, access to justice in political and public consciousness appears irrelevant, if not invisible. Why should this be? The legal field is comfortable using ‘access to justice’ as a shorthand term covering a wide mix of concepts, debated in confusingly conflicting ways and without precise definition. In other spheres – public services, business, media, professions and political circles - the term lacks clear meaning substance, or salience (outside of crime). The non-legal world doesn’t think much about how the justice system supports the collective social good nor its value in addressing current social and economic challenges. And yet there is real potential for legal services to work in partnership with other services such as health to make more impact on pressing social issues. A strategic approach to improving access to justice requires engaging more allies and advocates. This means we need to say what access to justice is for, what its broader societal value is, and why it matters. Unbundling the concept and developing a comprehensible ‘access to justice’ lexicon that is relevant and focused on outcomes rather than process, is a necessary first step.

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