The Role of Law in Holding Back the Poor

The UNDP's Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor has just released a report, Making the Law Work for Everyone, which addresses how and why wealth and other inequalities persist within societies.  The executive summary contains this conclusion:

"[I]t is not the absence of assets or the lack of work that hold [the poor] back, but the fact that the assets and work are insecure, unprotected, and far less productive that they might be....In too many countries, the laws, institutions, and policies governing economic, social and political affairs deny a large part of the society the chance to participate on equal terms. The rules of the game are unfair."

The report can be accessed here.  The co-chairs of the Commission also discuss the findings here.