Introduction - the rights of the poor - conceptual issues, Paul Spicker. Part 1 The experience of poverty: the law and the poor - institutional support and economic need in Italy, Yuri Kazepov; strategies for police accountability and community empowerment, Ross Hastings and R.P. Saunders. Part 2 Strategies to confront poverty: poverty, social exclusion and the impact of selected legal measures against caste discrimination in South Asia, Kalinga Tudor Silva and Ajith Hettihewage; disability and poverty in the United Kingdom, Peter Robson and Nicola Loughran. Part 3 Access to justice for the poor: the development of the notion of poverty and the equal protection clauses - a comparative analysis of Italy and the United States, Antonella Mameli; substantive justice and procedural fairness in social security - the UK experience, Michael Adler. Part 4 Overviews: the rule of law and poverty reduction - some issues, Helene Grandvoinnet; an army of ideas - marginalization, indigenous rights and civil society in Mexico since the Zapatista rebellion, Camilo Perez-Bustillo; appendix - CROP publications.

These essays focus on the global impact of legal policies on levels of poverty. They illustrate the distinct dimensions of poverty in a range of different settings and show how poverty can be exacerbated by quite discrete local cultural factors.

Original research and theory on the relations between law, legal institutions and social processes. The volumes in this series are eclectic in their disciplines, methodologies and theoretical perspectives, but they all share a strong comparative emphasis. The volumes originate in workshops hosted by the Onati International Institute for the Sociology of Law. Founding Series Editors: William L F Felstiner Eve Darian-Smith Editorial Board: Carlos Lugo, Hostos Law School, Puerto Rico Jacek Kurczewski, Warsaw University, Poland Marie-Claire Foblets, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany Ulrike Schultz, Fern Universität, Germany