Users’ Guide for Assessing Rule of Law in Public Administration

The Users’ Guide helps policymakers and assistance providers identify specific challenges, strengths and weaknesses related to the rule of law in the service delivered by a specific public agency to its end users.

It is a self-assessment tool that has been developed with a particular focus on local governance of service delivery and on public service providers with a high degree of interaction with individuals, and decision-making that affects the rights and interests of individuals.

The self-assessment allows an analysis of the degree of respect for the principles of the rule of law in public administration. It is based on six commonly accepted rule of law principles that are fundamental to effective, transparent and accountable public sector governance and service delivery.

The main focus of the tool is on key qualitative rights and justice issues for the individual in relation to public administration. The self-assessment, and the six rule of law principles on which it is based, emphasises the demand side of public administration, that is, the services that individual service users consider essential and the aspects they consider problematic, in addition to the issues that civil servants see as the most challenging.