Legal and judicial reform through development assistance: some lessons.

• Author: Toope, Stephen J.

Legal and judicial reform plays an important role within the framework of international development assistance: stable and just legal systems support the promotion of security, equity, and prosperity. The author's goal is to assist those who am interested in designing or working on justice initiatives by contributing to the academic reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of legal and judicial reform initiatives.

There is a need for comprehensive and early analyses of the condition, status, and requirements of the governance system where intervention is being considered. Of critical importance in any such analyses is the need for precision first, in describing the elements that constitute legal systems, and, second, in positing useful markets for specific goals. The author proposes indicators of systemic health, while stressing that each indicator will vary in relevance in each country's situation.

The author goes on to set out the principles for sound legal and judicial reform programming. First sound reform initiatives should plan for long-term engagement because of the need for local commitment to the processes and goals of reform endeavors. Second, program designers cannot afford to ignore the question of indigenous social economic, and cultural values because a lack of sensitivity to these values can lead to resistance, unsustainability, and ultimately failure. Finally, major projects should only be considered and undertaken once experience has been gained on more modest initiatives,

Based on these principles, the author presets diverse programming options, focussing on issues relating to sequencing, the recognition and seizure of opportunities with respect to the development of reform constituencies,?? well as issues relating to regional initiatives and donor coordination. Some of the potential risks inherent in various forms of justice programming are also highlighted in the hope of assisting project designers and implementers to ask the right questions at the outset of legal and judicial reform initiatives.

The author concludes by discussing issues relating to the evaluation of the results of judicial reform programs, emphasizing that the means and ends of such programs are in constant interaction. Performance assessment schemes must include a complex combination of quantitative and qualitative results indicators and must also include risk assessment and reassessment mechanisms risks can change, multiply, and abate during project implementation.

An example of how the author's analytical framework was employed in assessing Vietnam's legal system and in recommending programming options is provided in the appendix.

Le reforme juridique et judiciane joue un role important au sein du cadre plus large de l'assistance au developlment international: les systemes juridiques stables et justes soutiennent la promotion de la securite, de l'equite et de la prosperite. Le but de l'auteur est d'assister ceux qui sont interesses a conceptualiser ou a travailler a atteindre des initiatives de justice en contribuant a la reflexion academique concemant les initiatives de reformes juridiques et judiciaries.

Il existe un besoin de faire des analyses comprehensives aussi tot que possible de la condition, du status et des besoins du systeme de gouvernance ou une intervention est consideree. D'importance capitale est un besoin de precision quant a la description des elements qui constituent les systemes legaux en premiere, et puis afin de positionner des reperess utiles pour arriver aux buts specifiques. On propose des indices pour evaluer l'etat systematique de salubrite du systeme, en soulignant que indice sera plus ou moins pertinent etant donnela situation du pays concerne

L'auteur continue en etalant les principes necessaires pour un programme de reforme legal et judiciaire sain. Premierement, ces initiatives devraient prevoir un engagement a long terme parce qu'il est necessaire d'avoir un engagement local des processus et des buts des efforts de reforme. Deuxiemement, ceux qui conceptualisent le programme ne sont pas en mesure d'ignorer la question des valeurs indigenes socials, economiques et culturelles parce qu'un manqu, de sensibilite envers ces valeurs peut mener a la resistance, le non-soutenabilite, et ultimement l'echec. Finalement, des projects majeurs devraient seulement etre considereds et entrepris une fois que I'experience necessaire a ete acquise d'initiatives plus modestes.

A la lumiere de ces principles, I'auteur presente divers options de programmation en concentrant sur la saquence, la reconnaissance et la saisie d'opportunities en relation au eveloppement des circonscriptions de reforme, ainsi que les initiatives regionales et a la coordination de donateus. Quelques risques potentials inherents des formes varies de programmation de justice sont mis en evidence dans l'espoir d'assister ceux qui conceptualisent les projects ainsi que ceux qui les implementent et de poser les bonnes questions.

En conclusion, in discute l'evolution des resultants des programmes de reforme judiciaire, tout en soulignant que les moyens et les fins des programmes de re'forme judiciaire sont en interaction constants. Les projects d'evaluation de performance doivent inclure une combinaison complexe d'indices de resultants qui doivent etre quantitatifs ainsi que des mecanismes d'evaluation des risques et de re-evaluation parce que les risques peuvent changer, se multiplier et diminuer pendant l'execution d'un project.

Dan l'appendice, le cadre analytique de l'auteur est utilize afin d'evaluer le systeme juridique du Vietnam et afin de recommander des options de programmation.

Introduction

In the spring of 1996, the Policy Branch of the Canadian International Development Agency ("CIDA") convened a national round table on legal and judicial reform. (1) The round table reflected the growing engagement of CIDA, along with many other bilateral and multilateral donors, in justice programming in many parts of the globe. Flowing from the round table, at CIDA's request, I prepared an "instrument" or "framework" that encapsulated the lessons learned by Canadians and foreign partners through their justice initiatives, and was designed to help decision makers within CIDA assess the utility and viability of legal and judicial reform programs. (2) Using that framework, CIDA commissioned an analysis of its projects and programs in the justice area, produced in 1999. (3)

Meanwhile, in 1998, the Federal Department of Justice, along with the Canadian Bar Association and the Canadian Council of Law Deans, organized a delegation to visit the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank to discuss legal and judicial reform initiatives. They then jointly convened a second national workshop on international justice reform in 1999, (4) again drawing a wide-ranging group of participants active in the design and delivery of international legal and judicial reform projects. Since 1999, the collective experience of Canadians in general, and of CIDA in particular, has grown significantly. CIDA has launched a series of legal and judicial reform projects and programs in all of its geographic branches, the Department of Justice and other federal and provincial ministries and agencies have served as project designers and implementers, and many Canadian private sector and civil society actors have been engaged in justice reform work around the globe. Canadians have continued to share their experiences in workshops held at a succession of Canadian Bar Association summer meetings. Moreover, the experience of other bilateral and multilateral aid agencies with legal and judicial reform has grown exponentially in only a few years, and a wide range of studies and discussions has been published. The time is ripe for a detailed reflection on the experience with legal and judicial reform initiatives around the world. My principal goal is to assist those who are interested in designing or working on justice initiatives to do so with their eyes open and their minds attuned to opportunities and risks. A subsidiary goal is to contribute to academic reflection on the strengths and limitations of legal and judicial reform efforts. In this article, I propose a framework for assessing the health of a domestic legal system (Part I), set out principles for sound legal and judicial reform programming (Part II), assess the lessons learned from current projects concerning the management of risks (Part III), and offer reflections on the measurement of project and program results (Part IV).

A preliminary, but important, conceptual issue must be addressed before launching into an assessment of experience in legal and judicial reform to date: How do such efforts fit within the broader framework of international development assistance? In other words, why might legal and judicial reform be necessary in pursuing a development agenda? It must be acknowledged that empirical studies on the effects of justice programming are few. Studies that are available are largely impressionistic and tend to focus upon performance measures internal to legal systems without much attention being paid to extra-system effects. Although this is not surprising, given the inherent problems in assessing causality that will be discussed immediately below, we are left with remarkably little concrete evidence on the question how legal and judicial reform contributes to the broader development agenda. The methodology of this article reflects the paucity of empirical studies, relying instead on a survey of donor experience and reflections gleaned from over a decade of personal involvement in justice programming. With the evidentiary problem acknowledged, one can still proffer a brief, and inevitably superficial, answer to the question why legal and judicial reform matters: stable and just legal systems support the promotion of security, equity, and prosperity, if "security" is broadly...