Duties of Assistance and the Criminal/Civil Distinction

This Chapter analyzes the possible uses of the three interpretations of equal access to justice discussed in Chap. 3 within one classic debate in the field of access to justice: the evaluation of the practical relevance of a categorical distinction between criminal and civil cases for the recognition of a right to counsel. The chapter concludes that we shouldn’t trust either one of the received interpretations to provide conclusive guidance in practical matters in the field of access to justice: each of the received interpretations misses important features of the relevant legal and social phenomena we should be ready to evaluate and, thus, requires extensive integration and qualifications by a richer set of conceptual resources.