Nov. 10 – I-CONnect
Access to justice is one of the more widely recognized privileges in constitutional law and international human rights today. All of the most progressive and contemporary constitutions and human rights instruments recognize some form of it. The South Africans, the Germans, the Indians, the Canadians, and many others all grant a specific right of access to the courts to protect basic human rights, or authorize an individual to file a basic human rights complaint in a constitutional court, or both. And the Universal Declaration and every regional human rights instrument recognize either a right to access the courts for a violation of basic human rights, the right to a remedy, or both. But access to justice is conspicuously absent from the United States Constitution. The document fails to mention it even once.