Global Pro Bono: Causes, Context, and Contestation

The principle and practice of pro bono, or volunteer legal services for poor and other marginalized groups, is an increasingly important feature of civil justice systems around the world. Recent surveys have identified pro bono initiatives in more than eighty countries—including Colombia, Portugal, Nigeria, and Singapore—and the list keeps growing. Covering the spread of pro bono in across five continents, this book provides a unique comparative dataset permitting the first-ever analysis of pro bono's growing role in access to justice globally. The contributors are leading experts from around the world, whose chapters explore both the internal roots of and global influences on pro bono in transnational context. Global Pro Bono explores the dramatically expanding geographical and political reach of pro bono: documenting its essential contribution to bringing more justice to those on the margins, while underscoring its complex and contested meaning in different parts of the world.