Since the founding of the American Bar Foundation, ABF scholars have been deeply engaged with fundamental questions of access to justice.

The Access to Justice Research Initiative is a dynamic hub for innovative empirical research and programs that bridge the divide between access to civil justice scholarship and practice in the United States and around the world.

Led by ABF Faculty Fellow and MacArthur Fellow Rebecca L. Sandefur, the Initiative aims to develop and raise the profile of the field of access to civil justice, supporting empirical scholars through the ABF/JPB Foundation Access to Justice Scholars Program and identifying and developing global research and data on people-centered justice through the Justice Data Observatory.

The Access to Justice Research Initiative also produces original research and scholarship that informs our basic understanding of law and legal processes and serves as a resource for civil justice researchers, policy makers, and service providers as they seek to respond to the legal needs of the public today.