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How the Rule of Law is Measured

The WJP Rule of Law Index evaluates 143 countries worldwide. It combines responses from 215,046 households and opinions from around 4,100 experts to “measure how the rule of law is experienced and perceived in everyday life.”

The index looks at:

  • Checks and balances – limits on government power

  • Corruption levels

  • Government openness – access to information and civic engagement

  • Fundamental rights – equality, non-discrimination, right to life and fair trial, freedom of speech, religion, assembly, privacy protections, labor rights

  • Order and security – control of crime, reduction of internal conflicts and violence

  • Effective law enforcement

  • Civil justice system – functioning in civil matters

  • Criminal justice system – functioning in criminal matters

Poland Ranks 32nd – Who Tops the List?

Countries are scored from 0 (no rule of law) to 1 (perfect rule of law).

The highest scores go to Scandinavian countries: Denmark (0.9), Norway (0.89), Finland (0.87), and Sweden (0.85). They are followed by New Zealand, Germany, and Luxembourg (0.83 each), and Ireland, the Netherlands, and Estonia (0.82 each).

Within the EU’s second tier: Austria (12th), Belgium (17th), Lithuania (18th), and the Czech Republic (20th). In the third tier: Latvia (21st), France (22nd), Spain (25th), Slovenia (26th), Portugal (29th), and Cyprus (30th).

Poland ranks 32nd with a score of 0.66, just ahead of Malta. EU countries behind Poland include Italy, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria, and Hungary, which ranks 79th – the lowest in the EU.

Globally, the lowest scores go to Venezuela (0.26), Taliban-controlled Afghanistan (0.31), and Cambodia (0.31).

Trends: Russia Declines, Poland Improves

The biggest declines over the past year were seen in Russia (-4.9%), Sudan (-4.4%), Mozambique (-3.9%), and Togo (-2.9%). In Europe, rule of law also worsened in Georgia, Slovakia under Robert Fico, Hungary under Viktor Orbán, and Serbia.

Poland, by contrast, shows a slight improvement of 0.4% over the previous year. Globally, the largest improvements occurred in the Dominican Republic (+2.1%), Senegal (+1.6%), Sierra Leone (+1.4%), and Bangladesh (+1.3%).

The full WJP Rule of Law Index report is available here.

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