Can a legal literacy campaign build citizen trust? A randomized controlled trial in the tribal areas of Pakistan

We use a randomized controlled trial to gauge the impact of a legal literacy messaging campaign on litigants’ perceptions about fairness and efficiency of the recently reformed judicial system in the tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. These targeted messages were designed to inform citizens about their rights regarding legal procedures, provisions for appeals, and other actions that can be undertaken to seek justice. Using a sample of 196 litigants, half of which were randomly assigned to a treatment group that received legal literacy messages, we find that the messaging campaign had a statistically significant positive impact on perceptions regarding the reformed legal system in the tribal areas. Furthermore, we find stronger positive effects of the campaign for those participants who were more exposed to violence. Based on these findings, legal reforms, particularly in post-conflict environments, could be more effective in restoring citizen trust in the judicial system when they are accompanied by a legal literacy campaign.