Envisioning Reform: Conceptual and Practical Obstacles to Improving Judicial Performance in Latin AmericaJudicial reform became an important part of the agenda for development in Latin America early in the 1980s, when countries in the region started the process of democratization. Connections began to be made between judicial performance and market-based growth, and development specialists turned their attention to “second generation” institutional reforms. Although considerable progress has been made already in strengthening the judiciary and its supporting infrastructure (police, prosecutors, public defense counsel, the private bar, law schools, and the like), much remains to be done. Linn Hammergren’s book aims to turn the spotlight on the problems in the movement toward judicial reform in Latin America over the past two decades and to suggest ways to keep the movement on track toward achieving its multiple, though often conflicting, goals. After Part I’s overview of the reform movement’s history since the 1980s, Part II examines five approaches that have been taken to judicial reform, tracing their intellectual origins, historical and strategic development, the roles of local and international participants, and their relative success in producing positive change. Part III builds on this evaluation of the five partial approaches by offering a synthetic critique aimed at showing how to turn approaches into strategies, how to ensure they are based on experiential knowledge, and how to unite separate lines of action. |
From inside the book
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... Actions 55 vii 3 Developing a Professional, Institutionally Independent Judiciary 97 4 Access to Justice: Legal Assistance, Special Courts, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Beyond 131 5 Strengthening the Judiciary's Role as a Check ...
... actions by governmental and private actors.6 “Strengthening,” a favorite word of reformers, meant increasing judicial independence, updating laws and internal processes, professionalizing judges and other judicial employees, adding ...
... action. As just a start, several further questions loom large: access to what,19 efficiency of what,20 and independence from whom?21 As we will see, even those pursuing an apparently. 18. Most notably Prillaman (2000), but others have ...
... actions to the “civil half” of the courts. Needless to say, auxiliary organizations, like the public ministry, public defense, or police were completely beyond the pale. Over time, they have gradually lessened the strictures, and the ...
... actions.51 Although several courts in the region historically had these powers, they used them rarely and with extreme deference to governmental preferences. Constitutional changes combined with demands from legal activists and the ...
Other editions - View all
Envisioning Reform: Improving Judicial Performance in Latin America Linn Hammergren Limited preview - 2010 |
Envisioning Reform: Improving Judicial Performance in Latin America Linn A. Hammergren No preview available - 2007 |