Rebecca Sandefur describes civil justice this way:
“Everything that’s not criminal but is governed by law,” said Sandefur, a professor in Arizona State University’s T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics. “That’s employment, housing, insurance for your car. Anytime you have a relationship that has a legal aspect, so any family member, those we choose and those that are given to us by fate. Making a living, having a place to live, being able to take care of people who depend on you. Almost all those things are governed by civil law.”
The need to reform those laws and make legal aid more accessible and more affordable was the subject of a two-day conference last Thursday and Friday in the Memorial Union titled “Access to Civil Justice, Regulatory Reform And Just Solutions.”
Sandefur, a faculty fellow in the American Bar Foundation, where she leads the Access to Justice Research initiative, and an editor for Law & Society Review, organized and hosted the event, which included Supreme Court justices from two different states, human rights advocates, reform and deregulation experts and other leaders in the field of civil justice.
ASU News talked to Sandefur about the conference, the need for reforms and what those reforms could look like.
Question: What was the overarching purpose of the conference?
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