New ministers must "champion investment in justice", a senior barrister says.
Andrew Langdon QC says judges are unhappy and vulnerable people struggle to "seek redress in law".
Mr Langdon - chairman of the Bar Council, which represents barristers in England and Wales - has called for change in a column in a legal magazine.
"The fact is that our judiciary is unhappy, and the delivery of justice feels undervalued and underfunded by government," he has written in Counsel magazine.
"It is also the fact that vulnerable sectors of society have been disempowered by a succession of measures that remove their ability to seek redress in law.
"Forever ignoring these two growing problems will ultimately undermine the robustness of our constitution."
He added: "We need political leaders in our next government who champion investment in justice."