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World governments have embraced 'legal empowerment' as an end in itself and as an essential element in the fight against poverty. Civil society groups work to advance legal empowerment around the globe but, to date, there is not a comprehensive understanding of the impact of those efforts. This article offers the first review and mapping of existing evidence on legal empowerment. We identified and analyzed 199 studies in total. These studies span every major continent and address a wide range of legal empowerment interventions, such as legal literacy, community-based paralegals, and use of right to information laws. The breadth and richness of this body of work suggest we should revisit previous perceptions that there is little evidence on what legal empowerment can achieve. Stronger agency-both people's willingness to act and actual action-as well as increased legal knowledge are the most common positive impacts reported in this collection of evidence. The evidence also suggests legal empowerment programs can lead to acquisition of legal remedies, effective conflict resolution, and even improvements in health and education outcomes. Nearly ninety studies find positive impacts of legal empowerment programs on institutions-changes in law, policy or practice at various levels of administration. After exploring distributions and trends in the evidence, the article concludes by identifying gaps and questions for further inquiry to guide future research and, ultimately, promote stronger, more evidence-based practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many observers, state-building in Timor-Leste has overlooked and undermined local norms and governance practices, resulting in a potentially destabilising distance between citizens and the state. The emerging state justice system has been singled out for imposing inaccessible and alien institutions onto a population that has historically fought to retain its identity. Nonetheless, viewing access to justice as central to development and peace, local and international organisations continue to work to aid the equitable and swift resolution of disputes. Drawing upon qualitative fieldwork that examined a recent legal aid and paralegal programme, this article argues that some of these efforts are addressing earlier criticisms through the creation of practical hybrids; practices that use both imported and existing social norms to fulfill their clients' needs. However, the article concludes that such programmes should identify opportunities to introduce checks and balances that can further protect the vulnerable groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors argue that legal empowerment during political transitions must take into account the numerous and varied obstacles that people living in poverty face in accessing justice. Challenging impunity and strengthening justice require explicitly targeting power asymmetries and addressing obstacles that are social, cultural, financial and systemic in nature. The article examines different types of legal empowerment and access to justice programmes, highlighting their benefits and challenges from a human rights perspective. Finally, it draws lessons from existing programmes for practitioners and policymakers working to improve access to justice in transitional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]