Access to justice is often described as key for building and consolidating peace and enhancing socio-economic development in fragile and post-conflict states. Since the year 2000, legal empowerment has been one of the most popular approaches to improve such access, and a growing literature has presented mixed evidence of varied quality of its outcomes. This article evaluates and discusses the impact of a locally provisioned legal aid program on justice-seekers’ use of dispute resolution fora, legal agency, and trust in judicial institutions. The program was implemented between 2011 and 2014 in 26 municipalities of rural Burundi. The study considered its effects on 486 beneficiaries using various propensity score-matching methods and data on nonbeneficiaries from two distinct control groups (n = 3,267). Forty-eight interviews with key informants help discuss judicial practices. The observations indicated that:
- The program increased the use of courts but not trust in the judiciary.
- It had no significant impact on the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms
- While legal aid programs can improve access to courts, it does not necessarily mean an erosion of judicial ‘forum shopping’ or that trust in state institutions is reinforced and rights fully realized.
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