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
... citizen behavior. In other regions, it is more difficult to generalize about the justifying themes and interests.59 On a case-by-case basis, much depends on who initiates the reform, the extent of voiced, nonjudicial discontent with the ...
... citizen security Enhancing the judiciary's ability to deal with economically relevant disputes Common Activities Merit appointments, new forms of judicial governance, budgetary autonomy and higher budgets, professionalization of staff ...
... citizen well-being. Political intervention could hardly be blamed on the legal tradition. Local reformers, however, believed this and many other flaws were closely tied to procedural requirements. The claims are debatable. That made ...
... citizens with one or more judges. Although the investigation lies largely with one individual, both the prosecutor, a member of the public ministry, and defense counsel have access to the findings and can make their own suggestions as ...
... citizens will assess the success of the reform in terms of its efficacy in processing cases, identifying the guilty, and bringing them to justice. Until recently, any effort to evaluate those areas depended only on anecdotal evidence ...
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 |