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
... existing inquisitorial systems.25 Allowing for variations of detail, the traditional Latin American system featured the investigation of a purported crime by an instructional (or investigative) judge and its presentation to the trial ...
... existing ones (the courts, police, and, where they already were present, public ministries responsible for prosecution),29 provision of new equipment and infrastructure more compatible with the new procedural requirements, education of ...
... existing practices, often with far less clarity as to what they will substitute. Much of the Latin American judicial reform movement can be interpreted in this fashion. Reactive reform is not necessarily a bad approach; the few examples ...
... existing system only generated more abuses and fewer completed cases. The law, existing practices, and the criminal justice personnel were rarely up to the new challenges. It is thus not surprising that critics sought solutions in ...
... existing codes but had never participated in the practices ordered by any of them. Hence, their ability to determine what “worked” and why was severely constrained, and they tended to adopt elements from among their catalog of codes on ...
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 |