IBA Report – Rule of Law Backsliding Survey
Dr Julinda Beqiraj, Professor Sandra Kröger, Tahera Mandviwala, Professor Renata Uitz
The Bingham Centre is delighted to have undertaken a project with the International Bar Association (IBA) to survey legal professionals about the state of the rule of law in their jurisdictions, and develop recommendations for addressing problems identified. The study's academic co-authors, Dr Julinda Beqiraj (Bingham Centre), Professor Sandra Kröger (University of Exeter) and Professor Renata Uitz (Royal Holloway University of London) worked with project lead Tahera Mandviwala (IBA Rule of Law Forum).
The IBA report, published on 17 September 2026 is now available with an accompanying press release.
Rule of law principles command near-universal support—but their delivery falls strikingly short. Drawing on 316 responses from legal professionals across 64 countries, the IBA survey finds a consistent gap of roughly three points between the importance attached to core rule of law guarantees (9.2-9.7 out of 10) and their implementation in practice (6.2-6.8). This disconnect spans every region surveyed, including established Western democracies.
Judicial independence is formally protected, yet increasingly vulnerable. Political parties were identified as a threat by 83% of respondents and governmental actors by 67%. Chronic underfunding is another major weakness: 64% said courts lack adequate human, financial and material resources, rising to 68% in Council of Europe states and 76% in Latin America and the Caribbean. Only 54% considered judicial processes free from inappropriate interference.
Confidence in judicial impartiality also masks troubling lived experience. Although 75% regarded their judiciary as impartial overall, 48% had personally encountered bias. Its perceived drivers vary: corruption dominates in Latin America and the Caribbean, while ideological bias, social background and judicial "groupthink" feature more prominently in Europe and North America.
The report calls on the legal profession to move from concern to action, and makes five recommendations which include: building a shared, depoliticised understanding of the rule of law, advocating for the inclusion of rule of law considerations into policy and law-making, monitoring and responding to rule of law threats and violations, strengthening partnerships with civil society, and upholding professional integrity.
