The American Court System = A Public Good?

            A recent topic in my Introduction to Public Policy course was Public Goods. In my discussion section, the TA encouraged us to name Public Goods. One of my classmates suggested the American Court System as an example. After a pause of contemplation, the TA agreed and moved on. I, however, spent the rest of the class thinking about the qualities of the American Courts System and how it does or does not resemble a public good. 

            In theory the Court System should certainly be a Public Good. They are a publicly financed system that is freely available to all Americans to utilize. One citizen's use of the system doesn't take away from another's and all citizen's personal rights are protected by trial in a court of law. Referring back to our Gruber readings, in Chapter 7 Gruber makes the point that most Public Goods we think of are actually "Impure" Public Goods, exhibiting imperfect non-rival or non-excludable properties. The Court System certainly is one of these Impure Public Goods. For example, Court back-log is massive issue in our society, as citizens are unable to have their cases heard in a reasonable amount of time. These problems have only been exacerbated by COVID-19 with the pace of case-work slowing further. Around the nation people are in prison, on bail, or roaming freely due to the Pandemic-driven severe back-log while they wait for their cases to be heard. Negative externalities abound with these situations. While there will always be a threshold of rivalry of use with regards to our Court System, such as number of cases a court can hear in a year, the Pandemic has pushed the American Court System further and further away from the nature of a Public Good. In some areas many non-violent crime cases were simply dropped to ease the growing court's burden. Citizen's issues are being prioritized and evaluated rather than heard. The American Court System may be partially resemble a Public Good, but it is an impure one to the core.