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Research Paper | Law | Volume 15 Issue 6, June 2026 | Pages: 826 - 831 | India
Beyond the Courtroom: Evaluating Equity, Access, and Social Justice in Alternative Dispute Resolution in Liberia and India
Abstract: Access to justice is often described as the first promise of constitutionalism, but in practice the promise is distributed unevenly. Court systems can be slow, expensive, procedurally intimidating, and geographically remote; for many litigants, especially women, persons with disabilities, rural communities, low-income parties, and historically excluded groups, the courthouse may be formally open yet practically inaccessible. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) was developed in part as a corrective to those failures. Mediation, arbitration, conciliation, Lok Adalats, and related hybrid processes can reduce delay, lower transaction costs, and expand the range of dispute-resolution options. Yet ADR is not automatically fair. Informality can hide coercion; party autonomy can mask inequality; and efficiency can become a substitute for justice. The central question of this paper is therefore not whether ADR is faster than litigation, but whether it can be structured so that speed does not erode dignity, equal participation, or substantive justice. This study argues that a socially just ADR system must be designed around constitutional equality, due process, and meaningful access. It examines the Indian constitutional framework, especially Articles 14, 15, 21, 32, 39A, and 50, together with landmark Indian decisions that constitutionalized legal aid and encouraged ADR as a complement to ordinary litigation. It then turns to Liberia, where Articles 11, 20, 21, 24, and related guarantees of the 1986 Constitution establish equality before the law, due process, a right to counsel, a right to trial by jury in appropriate cases, and an inviolable right of appeal. The study also draws on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ICCPR, CEDAW, the CRPD, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and UNCITRAL instruments to show that access to justice is now a global normative commitment. The comparative conclusion is straightforward: ADR can serve social justice only when the state, courts, and dispute-resolution institutions actively guard against power imbalance, discrimination, digital exclusion, and procedural unfairness.
Keywords: Access to justice, ADR, Mediation, Arbitration, Equality, Legal aid, Social justice, India, Liberia, International human rights
How to Cite?: Sam Siryon, "Beyond the Courtroom: Evaluating Equity, Access, and Social Justice in Alternative Dispute Resolution in Liberia and India", Volume 15 Issue 6, June 2026, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), Pages: 826-831, https://www.ijsr.net/getabstract.php?paperid=MR26614220506, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21275/MR26614220506