* This article was developed from a working paper submitted to the United Nations Development Programme in which the author was invited to write a Technical Background Paper on corruption and access to justice for the" Asia Pacific Human Development Report 2007 on Corruption and Human Development." The substantive themes and sub-themes of the present work are drawn from previous research and publications of the author on this subject. I would like to thank Ms. Ivy Wang for her help and assistance in editing this article.** Professor C. Raj Kumar is the Chief Executive Officer of the OP Jindal Global University and the Jindal Global Law School proposed to be established in Sonepat, Haryana, India. He has taught for more than five years at the School of Law of the City University of Hong Kong. He is an Honorary Consultant to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in India and is also the CEO of an India-based non-profit legal education and research promotion institution, Legal Education and Research Society (LEARS). Professor Kumar was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, UK, where he obtained his Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) degree; a Landon Gammon Fellow at the Harvard Law School, USA, where he obtained his Master of Laws (LLM) degree and a James Souverine Gallo Memorial Scholar at the Harvard University. He also holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Delhi, India; and a Bachelor of Commerce (BCom.) degree from the University of Madras, India. Professor Kumar's areas of specialisation include human rights and development, corruption and governance, law and disaster management, and legal education. He has more than one hundred publications to his credit and has published widely in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan and the United States.