Legal reform refers to the process of examining laws and advocating for and carrying out changes to them, usually with the aim of enhancing justice or efficiency. This can include making laws easier to understand, fairer, or more up-to-date, as well as introducing new laws and eliminating outdated ones. It can also involve a review and revision of existing laws, such as bankruptcy, by an expert committee or other group, to make them more effective.
The legal system was not intentionally designed to be unfair or inefficient. Instead, it was shaped by the way human beings think and behave. Nonetheless, the current system does create serious inequities. Some of these inequities have been around for a long time, and others are relatively new. These inequities often stem from social distinctions, such as those between people who deserve and do not deserve lenient treatment (e.g., racial bias in sentencing).
Some legal reforms focus on changing the formal, overt aspects of law. Others address the ways that law is applied in practice, such as by lowering costs and improving access to legal services. Still other reforms are aimed at changing the legal profession itself, such as making it more like the medical profession, which increasingly relies on non-physicians to provide much of its care. Other reforms seek to put the power of justice in the hands of ordinary citizens, as with Namati’s global network that puts a range of legal services in the hands of community activists.