Monopoly, market for legal services and access to justice: notes for a future debate

Abstract

Lack of access to justice, especially for the most vulnerable population, is an urgent problem for countries such as Colombia. Public pro-bono legal aid programs do not seem to offer sufficient or effective services. Other jurisdictions that face the same situation have started adopting different measures that touch upon lawyers’ monopoly and the rules that govern the legal services market. This article studies and compiles rulings from the Colombian Constitutional Court that have dealt with these two topics to infer the terms under which the debate of how to promote access to justice through the market will take place in the future.