Authored by Professor Pascoe Pleasence and Professor Nigel Balmer, this chapter is a primer on legal capability. Drawing on Sen's capability approach, the chapter conceptualises and defines legal capability as the freedom and ability to navigate legal frameworks and achieve fair resolution of justiciable issues.

It provides an overview of the social patterning of key capability dimensions and explains why understanding and addressing legal capability is critical to effective access to justice policy and practice.

Published as Chapter 13 in the Research Handbook on Civil Justice (Edward Elgar, 2025).