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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... reasons for advancing in this area. On the judges' side, there was a sincere or calculated interest in improving their image and overcoming the impression that they served only the elites. Judiciaries in many countries began programs to ...
... reasons having little apparent relationship to their likely impact, especially in the form they take. Training, for example, can be quite effective in producing behavioral change, but only when designed to do so and paired with ...
... reason they are discussed in more depth in this section. the status quo ante and its influence on reform goals and design Reform is often a reactive undertaking. Its proponents are attempting to eliminate weaknesses in existing ...
... reasons” Messick (personal communication) adds that there are indications this may be changing, but no hard evidence to support that belief. 8. In fact, in recent years, a number of common law jurists have begun to suggest the ...
... reasons (excessive formalism, impunity, corruption, and a tendency to fall most heavily on the poor), many of its specific characteristics are quite different from those in Spanish-speaking Latin American. For example, a police official ...
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 |