The rule of law is considered to be one of the main criterion by which societies and states are measured in terms of the functionality of their governance. According to the Rule of Law Index by the World Bank, Finland was ranked highest and Venezuela lowest in 2021 when it comes to the quality of the rule of law. The index is based on a meta analysis of different surveys and data points measuring the perceived and actual rule of law in a country, for example the prevalence of crime and violence, the strength of property rights and contract enforcement or trust in the police and the courts. Singapore and New Zealand also ranked among the top 5 of countries and territories worldwide, while the United States ranked 24th.
Israel, where protests against the government's judicial reform have been intensifying, received a satisfactory score when the index was last published for 2021. At 0.94 index points, it ranked behind many Western European and other developed nations, but still quite far ahead of several countries in Eastern Europe - including Poland - as well as those in Southern Europe. Here, Spain (0.88), Greece (0.35) and Italy (0.27) received lower scores.
