Rule of Law Declines in the United States

The World Justice Project has published this year’s Rule of Law Index.  Distressingly, more countries declined than improved in overall rule of law performance for a third year in a row, continuing a negative slide toward weakening rule of law worldwide.  In every region, a majority of countries slipped backward or remained unchanged in their overall rule of law performance since the 2019 Index. 

Topping this year’s index were Denmark, Norway, and Finland.  For the first time, the United States fell out of the first 20 countries, instead ranking at #21. 

The index is based on eight factors: constraints on government power, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice, and criminal justice.  In rankings based on each individual factor, the United States was ranked No. 13 for open government, No. 19 for absence of corruption and No. 20 for regulatory enforcement. Its lowest individual rank was No. 36 for civil justice. (The breakdown is at page 156 of the report.)

The Index relies on national surveys of more than 130,000 households and 4000 legal practitioners and experts to measure how the rule of law is experienced and perceived worldwide.