Health justice interventions in England and Australia: an intersectional approach to legal capability and health literacy

Scholarship to date has evidenced a clear relationship between poor health and unmet legal need, particularly among disadvantaged and marginalised social groups. In this article, we draw upon comparative insights from England and Australia to argue that, despite the success of such initiatives in England to date, there remain a range of overlooked early intervention opportunities for addressing the cumulative and compounding ways that legal and health problems intersect at the individual level. We map the current landscape of scholarly evidence regarding the relationship between health and justice and introduce a conceptual framework of intersectionality as reinforced by vulnerability theory as a fresh lens through which to explore the diverse ways that individualised experiences of health and legal problems intersect with wider marginalisation. We argue that health justice interventions must be better matched to the individualised needs of service users, and that with stronger understanding of how individuals experience and respond to health and/or legal problems, it will be possible to diversify interventions to a broader range of settings. To aid this understanding, we propose that future development and evaluation of such initiatives must be clearly focused on ensuring that services are three things: responsive, holistic, and community-embedded.