Serbia Trails Balkan States in Global Justice List

Balkan countries have scored very differently in the World Justice Report's "Rule of Law Index 2018", which measures adherence to the rule of law in 113 countries worldwide and was published on Wednesday.

The poll - based on a general population poll involving 1,000 respondents per country and a qualified experts' questionnaire involving legal experts and rights activists - aims to serve as "a quantitative tool that measures the rule of law in practice".

"It measures the rule of law based on the experiences and  perceptions of the general public and in-country experts worldwide," the introduction writes.

Rankings are based on eight factors: constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice, and criminal justice.

In the global ranking - in which Denmark came top and Venezuela bottom - Balkan countries achieved very different scores.

Romania came top in the region in 29th place, Slovenia came second, in 26th place, and Croatia came third, in 35th place.

Of the other countries in the region, Bulgaria came in 55th place, Bosnia in 56th place, Macedonia in 57th place, Albania in 68th place, while Serbia came way down the line in 76th place.

Russia came in 89th place, just above Turkey.

The survey does not include all UN member states, however, only 114 countries from which sufficient data were explained. Kosovo and Montenegro were not included.

Moreover, Romania's relatively good score came ahead of controversial justice reforms - which civic activists there say will undermine the rule of law in the country and the progress made so far in curbing corruption.

Some countries' scores were affected by very...