According to the Rule of Law Index 2023 published by the World Justice Project (WJP), the rule of law has been further undermined in the majority of countries once again this year.
This is the sixth Index in a row that has shown a decrease in the rule of law around the globe. Even just considering this past year, the rule of law deteriorated in 59% of the examined countries, including India.
Since 2016, there has been a decline in the rule of law in 78% of the nations that were analysed. The rule of law aspect, Fundamental Rights, will suffer the greatest significant decline between 2016 and 2023. This decline will occur in 77% of nations, including India.
The index ratings for Constraints on Government Powers have decreased in 74% of the world’s countries, including India, over the past seven years. The Index demonstrates that legislative bodies, judicial systems, and civil society in general—including the media—have all suffered setbacks in restricting the executive branch’s authority.
These and other authoritarian patterns carried over into 2023, but the rate of decline was less than in previous years. Fewer nations experienced a decline in 2022 and 2023 compared to preceding years.
56% of countries saw a reduction in the constraints placed on the powers of their governments, compared to 58% in 2022 and 70% in 2021. Similarly, a smaller majority of countries suffered overall rule of law declines this year (59%), compared to the previous two years (61% and 74%), when the respective numbers were 61% and 74%.
This year, a lower majority of countries (56%) suffered a decline in Fundamental Rights compared to the number of countries that had such a decline in 2022 (66%).
On the other hand, recent trends indicate that the efficiency of the justice system is continuing to deteriorate.
This year, scores on the Index for Civil Justice decreased for 66 per cent of countries, an increase from 61 per cent of the previous year. Most blame can be placed on longer wait times for justice and laxer enforcement. In the meantime, scores for Criminal Justice dropped in a marginally greater number of countries this year (56%) than the previous year (55%).
In contrast to the general trend, India is one of the countries whose score on the civil justice indicator increased.
Rule of law in India
According to a ranking of 142 nations worldwide, India is ranked 79th compared to 77th in 2022. In 2021, the rank was 79th and in 2015, the rank was 59th (out of 102 countries). India comes in at position three out of the six countries that make up South Asia. Nepal has the best overall performance in the region and is now 71st out of 142 countries worldwide. Sri Lanka and India come in second and third, respectively. The three countries in the region with the lowest ratings are Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, which all tied for 140th place globally.
The economies of all six South Asian nations had negative growth over the past year. Five of these six countries had also experienced a decrease in the preceding year.
India is ranked 9th out of 37 countries that fall under the lower-middle income category.
Rankings and tendencies on a global scale
In the Rule of Law Index published by the World Justice Project in 2023, Denmark had the highest overall ranking, followed by Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Germany. Venezuela, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo all tied for the position of country with the lowest score.
