Samenvatting

Both in public policy and in scientific research, the concept of access to justice has been subject to change. In the seventies access to justice was mainly understood as access to a lawyer and a judge. In the nineties the perspective widens to alternative forms of dispute resolution, self-help and juridification of problems. The present article focuses on access to justice for citizens who experienced civil and administrative problems. Firstly, it illustrates the change in public policy with respect to dispute resolution. Secondly, it describes the shifting views on access to justice in empirical research. Furthermore it presents the results of socio-legal research into the dispute resolution of citizens and discusses what these results tell us about access to justice.