Advancing the rule of law through collaborative partnerships and innovation

By Veronica Rios, Director of Global Associations & Strategic Partnerships, LexisNexis.

Advancing the rule of law is LexisNexis’ global mission and as we reflect on how this mission has driven our day-to-day work over the past decade, it’s clear that this movement has been one founded by the efforts and passion of our people and the meaningful partnerships and connections we build.

The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index is one of the most comprehensive bodies of work on the topic of rule of law. It surveys and documents more than 154,000 households and 3,600 legal practitioners and expert individuals from 140 countries to understand a country’s adherence to 44 rule of law indicators including constraints on government power, fundamental rights, regulatory enforcement, and civil and criminal justice. In the past 5 years, the index has shown a significant decline in the rule of law around the world. The impact of COVID-19 accelerated this decline with many countries seeing negative declines in constraints to government powers, suggesting less accountability and weakened checks and balances, timeliness in civil, criminal, and administrative justice procedures and absence of discrimination.

LexisNexis developed the Rule of Law Impact Tracker which correlated data across the World Bank, the World Justice Project and Transparency International to look at the relationship between the rule of law and social and economic development. The tracker drew relationships between the rule of law and strong economic indicators and indicated that countries with a lower rule of law index often have instability or lack of trust in their legal system and with such instability, economic growth can become stagnant.

As a result, investment doesn’t take place, because individuals and businesses do not feel protected. The rule of law is a critical factor which businesses consider when deciding where to invest and expand operations because the rule of law provides a legal foundation for conducting business in a reliable and predictable manner. It promotes economic investment by increasing the protection of property rights and contracts. It allows for the timely and predictable resolution of disputes, lowers levels of corruption and bribery, and ensures the legal identity of individuals and organizations, providing greater security.

So how can businesses like LexisNexis support strengthening the rule of law, which in turn drives increased investment, and economic and social advancement? LexisNexis leverages our core skills and resources to create real change in the world. As an experienced provider of legal content and technology, we harnessed our skills, expertise and most importantly, the passion of our people to advance the rule of law.

This year we continue to deploy of our core skills across the Pacific Islands through legislation consolidation and publication ensuring accurate and timely access to legal information. We collaborate with our partners across the Pacific Islands of Fiji, Nauru, and Cook Islands. Much of this work had to continue through COVID –completely remotely. Our teams were unable to travel to the Pacific Islands which led to unavoidable delays and workarounds. However, our local stakeholders and partners continued to collaborate with the LexisNexis team to continue the work and progress continues on these important projects. The LexisNexis teams were back on the ground, with visits to Fiji and the Cook Islands starting up again a few months ago.

The work to advance the rule of law will never be done and through collaborative partnerships and innovation, LexisNexis continues to leverage our resources and our people’s dedication and commitment to the cause to protect and support the rule of law.

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