JUSTICE REFORMS IN THE AMERICAS

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JUSTICE REFORMS IN THE AMERICAS

• Are They Improving Our Judicial Systems?

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• Latin American justice systems have undergone
  notable changes over the past 10 years. These
  adjustments have increased the importance, power
  and independence of these systems and have
  improved the services that they provide.

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Increased Competences
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Reformed Procedures
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Investments to Improve ManagementIn millions of
dollars. Closed and ongoing credits for the past
10 years.
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Judicial Budgets Have Grown (dollars per capita)
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Improved Selection Systems and More Stable
Positions

• Examples
• New mechanisms for selecting Supreme Court
  justices (Argentina and the Dominican Republic)
  
• Role of Judicial Academies in human resources
  policies (Chile and Colombia)
  
• Policies for reducing provisional status of
  judges (Peru)
  
• Improvements in judicial salaries

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Concern for Training Personnel
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Increased Coverage
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• HOWEVER, these changes are not perceived by our
  citizens, who continue to have a poor image and
  low amount of confidence in the operation of the
  judicial system.

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High Levels of Distrust in Judicial System
Source Latinobarómetro
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To this we must add

• Perceptions of judicial corruption
• Perceptions of discriminatory system
• (the poor, gender, other at-risk sectors)
• Citizens always count issues related to justice
  and personal safety among their main problems.
  

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How can we explain this?

• Increased powers implies increased demands and
  expectations, all of which shows the problems of
  judicial systems more clearly.
  
• Judicial systems have an acute problem in regard
  to relating to citizens producing information,
  participating in public discussions, etc.
  (differences between experiences and
  perceptions)
• Poor quality of policy and volubility of
  political support for reform processes

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Problems Associated with Reforms

• Design-related
• One dimensional many reforms are limited to
  juridical issues
  
• Co-opting of legal community
• Little room for innovation
• Partial technical development only principles or
  general ideas, unable to replace practices
  
• Uncoordinated reforms the role of international
  cooperation (everyone has an agenda)

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Problems

• Strategy-related
• The trap of completeness laundry list
• As compared to partial reforms (Ex. Management
  and Criminal Procedure Reform)
  
• The trap of consensus reforms without judges
  (which cannot be implemented)
  
• As compared to reforms designed by judges (which
  change nothing)
  
• The trap of pilot programs
• As compared to gradual reforms

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Problems

• Implementation
• Inadequate Leadership
• Problems with judicial government
• Co-opting by the leaders of judicial systems
• Lack of political support Disappearance of
  original sources of support, such as the
  government, parliament, media and civil society
  (Who is the client?)
• Lack of information, monitoring and evaluation

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JSCAs Contribution

• JSCA has made a great deal of progress in
  technical aspects over the past few years by
  working with justice sector institutions.
  
• Value is placed on an empirical discourse that
  addresses management and structural issues that
  are key to the reforms success.
  
• This has allowed us to make progress in specific
  reform programs in several countries in the
  region.
  
• However, political support for these processes is
  weak, and they are not always priorities in the
  face of contingency. This leads to a failure to
  promote the normative changes that are needed
  and, especially, to their abandonment following
  initial problems. This leaves the initiatives
  without funding except for international
  cooperation.

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www.cejamericas.org