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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... traditional codes made room for hearings where the parties met before the judge. These hearings were frequently ignored, or reduced to depositions conducted by low-level courtroom staff. 13. Stepán (1994, 187) reports, however, that ...
... traditional defensor de oWcio, a lawyer appointed by the judiciary or ministry of justice to attend to all indigent defendants in a given district. Pro bono defense supplied by private lawyers is highly underdeveloped, and often is as ...
... traditional weaknesses and vices that would also impede the code's effective enactment. Not all programs have included all of these measures. Even those included show enormous variations in the attention given to them and thus the ...
... traditional vices, were difficult to eliminate. Observers note that prosecutors still attempt to document an entire investigation before asking for an indictment, that they are struggling with their new role in “leading the police ...
... traditional English version—a more proactive judge, reliance on prosecutorial investigation, which may or may not reach the judge as a written case file, a far less adversarial exchange between prosecution and defense counsel, and 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 |