'Reforming Justice' calls for justice to be repositioned more centrally in evolving notions of equitable development. Justice is fundamental to human well being and essential to development. Over the past fifty years, however, overseas development assistance - foreign aid - has grappled with the challenge of improving 'the rule of law' with underwhelming and often dismal results around the world. Development agencies have supported legal and judicial reforms in order to improve economic growth and good governance, but are yet to address mounting concerns about equity and distribution. Building on new evidence from Asia, Livingston Armytage argues that it is now time to realign the approach to promote justice as fairness and equity.

Despite the disappointing results of fifty years of judicial reform, evidence from Asia suggests that a shift in justice reform efforts could result in important progress being made. Livingston Armytage argues that reform should focus on promoting fairness and equity, as opposed to economic growth and good governance. Justice is constitutive to human wellbeing and cannot be trumped by economics. Finding a balance between utility and aggregate wellbeing on the one hand and equity and individual wellbeing on the other is at the crux of this important book.