LibGuides: Rule of Law Research: Data

Finding Information on Rule of Law Initiatives

Data on the conduct, funding, and efficacy of rule of law initiatives may be found in many places, from news acounts to government documents to nongovernmental organization studies. You may need to be creative in locating the information for your particular research project, but the sites and sources below are a good source of aggregate information on the rule of law worldwide.

Rule of Law Indexes and Datasets

LexisNexis Rule of Law Impact Tracker
This interactive tool quantifies the relationship between rule of law and social and economic development.
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators
The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project reports aggregate and individual governance indicators for 215 economies over the period 1996–2012, for six dimensions of governance:Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption.
World Justice Project Rule of Law Index
The WJP Rule of Law Index® is a quantitative assessment tool designed by the World Justice Project offering a detailed and comprehensive picture of the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law in practice. It provides original data regarding a variety of dimensions of the rule of law, enabling the assessment of a nation’s adherence to the rule of law in practice, identify a nation’s strengths and weaknesses in comparison to similarly situated countries, and track changes over time.

Additional Sources

OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
Full-text publications and statistical information from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) covering agriculture and food, education and skills, emerging economies and transition economies, employment, energy, enterprise, industry, and trade, environment and sustainable development, finance and investment, general economics and future studies, governance, international development, nuclear energy, science and information technology, social issues and migration, statistics sources and methods, taxation, territorial economy, and transport. Note: Some of the statistical data tools require Internet Explorer.

USAID Results and Data
The United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Results and Data portal provides country- and subject-specific information on USAID's activities, including Democracy and Governance.

World Bank eLibrary This link opens in a new window
Fulltext PDF-format collection of more than 1,200 World Bank books, including all new titles and selected titles beginning in 1984. Topics covered include:agriculture, education, environment, finance, globalization, governance, health and population, industry, infrastructure, international economics, labor and employment, macroeconomics and growth, poverty, private sector development, public sector management, rural development, social development, transition economies, urban development.

UN Rule of Law Portal
The UN Rule of Law site provides this helpful list for practitioners, of specialized databases and websites offering information on various aspects of rule of law.