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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... demands. Over time, public opinion polls show no great improvement in citizen appreciations of the quantity or quality of services or of the organizations' dedication to achieving them.12 Moreover, the changes have brought new ...
... demands for more funding and a notable disinclination to subject its use to ordinary accountability mechanisms.16 For many courts, budgetary independence seems to mean they should get what they want and spend it as they see fit. Access ...
... demands from legal activists and the courts' greater political autonomy produced a surge in judicial involvement. Costa Rica's Sala Constitutional (constitutional chamber), created in 1989, was soon receiving and deciding 2,000 and then ...
... demand and the threats to the courts themselves—via attacks on judges, corruption, and the emergence of extrajudicial mechanisms, ranging from vigilante justice to special tribunals outside the ordinary court system.57 In Eastern Europe ...
... demands for greater quantity, different quality of services Strengthening the judiciary's role as an independent check on abuses by other governmental actors, branches of government Increased accessibility to wider range of social ...
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 |