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
Results 6-10 of 71
... funds become the scapegoats. An antiquated tradition of weighted evidence (prueba tasada)19 gave most importance to a confession. The police thus used any and all means at hand to extract one. Supervision of the police by investigative ...
... funding, outdated procedures, lack of equipment, or the inadequacy of courtroom staff. The implied solutions—higher budgets, more equipment, courtroom reorganizations and staff replacement or training—were either welcomed by judicial ...
... funds to attract good employees or equip them adequately. In the mid-1980s, Peru's administrative offices were located in a ramshackle building a few blocks from the supreme court. Passages between offices were often uncovered—at least ...
... funds from the treasury. For what statistics they used, they had to depend on the goodwill of the district courts, because they had no power to demand them. Planning and forecasting were unknown, and budgeting was strictly on a cash ...
... funding separate automation efforts28), adopt already-outmoded or otherwise inappropriate equipment, and omit the necessary consultations with users as to what they. 24. This is hardly unique to Latin American courts. A review of ...
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 |