The country regains the spot it lost last year
Australia has moved back into top 10 of the World Justice Project’s (WJP) “Rule of Law Index.”
The country secured 0.81 of a possible 1 score and joined Denmark (0.89), Norway (0.89), Finland (0.87), Sweden (0.86), the Netherlands (0.85), Germany (0.83), New Zealand (0.83), Austria (0.81), and Canada (0.81) to get the top honours.
Australia is edged only by New Zealand in the “East Asia and Pacific” region where WJP grouped it. Singapore (0.80), Japan (0.79), Hong Kong (0.77), Republic of Korea (0.72), Mongolia (0.54), Malaysia (0.54), Indonesia (0.52), and Thailand (0.50) complete the top 10 in the region.
WJP studied each country using constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice, and criminal justice.
Australia was in the top 10 for constraints on government powers (10th), open government (9th), and regulatory enforcement (7th). It was in the top 20 for absence of corruption (12th), fundamental rights (13th), order and security (18th), civil justice (13th), and criminal justice (13th).
For absence of corruption, the report gave Australia a low score on corruption in the legislature. It also scored relatively low in corruption in the executive branch.
Discrimination, due process of law, and labour rights weighed down the country on the fundamental rights measure. For order and security, Australia got a low score on absence of violent redress.
For civil justice, the country was burdened by its score on accessibility and affordability, discrimination, unreasonable delay, and effective enforcement. Under criminal justice, Australia scored low in effective investigations, effective correctional system, discrimination, and due process of law.
Australia was named a country with an above the median and stable score in rule of law. WJP gathered 1,000 responses from Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney for the study.
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