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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... Criminal justice is not the only partial reform where such strategic shortcuts have confused the issue of what would ... criminal justice programs without taking the status quo ante into account—for which reason the following brief ...
... criminal and civil trials, many Latin American countries still required that prosecution and defense counsel provide written lists of the questions they would ask of witnesses to the judge for his determination as to whether they would ...
... criminal and criminal procedures codes posed significant problems. Rules concerning compulsory pretrial detention (often for any crime with a penalty in excess of three years) and their exaggerated application produced a high proportion ...
... criminal justice personnel were rarely up to the new challenges. It is thus not surprising that critics sought solutions in altering the basic system. The question is whether they focused on enough of the contributing factors. origins ...
... criminal justice reformers have given least attention. It is obvious that implementing the greater reform first would put off criminal justice for some time. The reformers may also be counting on the more targeted changes leveraging 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 |