The Best Laid Schemes … Gang Aft A-gley: Judicial Reform in Latin America – Evidence from Costa Rica (original) (raw)

A quantitative assessment of the efficiency of the judicial sector in Latin America

International Review of Law and Economics, 1997

There is a widespread belief throughout Latin America that the judicial sector is not in a position to foster private sector development within a market system. The courts are overburdened and unable to dispose of cases in a timely fashion. As a result, frustrated litigants lose faith in the public justice system's ability to resolve their disputes. This loss of faith, in turn, causes private parties to factor added costs for judicial delay into their private transactions, and these added costs reduce economic activity and retard economic development. Because there are no viable alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in Latin American countries, the region urgently needs an efficient judicial sector to complement the market reforms recently introduced by many governments. An important implication of this observation is that the enhancement of the capability of the courts to satisfy the demand for dispositions is one of the most important, but least noted, aspects of Latin American economic development strategies. First, we report the results of smweys of court-users in several Latin American countries in an effort to identify the causes of dissatisfaction with the courts. Second, we show that simply increasing the amount of financial resources available to the judiciary will not necessarily increase the courts' efficiency. Finally, we look at a large sample of commercial cases in Argentina and Venezuela to identify court-related and litigant-related factors associated to the length of cost-adjusted time to final disposition of court cases. On the basis of this empirical work we identify the most fruitful courses of judicial reform in Latin America.

Judicial systems and economic performance

The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 1994

This paper examines the importance of judicial systems to economic performance, particularly in the countries of Latin America which are attempting economic liberalization.

Judicial Reform and Economic Development: A Survey of the Issues

The World Bank Research Observer, 1999

Acknowledging the importance of sound judicial systems to good governance and economic growth, the World Bank and several other donor organizations have funded judicial reform projects in more than two dozen developing countries and transition economies during the last few years. Yet little is known about the actual effect of judicial reform on economic performance or even about what elements constitute a sound reform project. This article surveys a wide range of current research on judicial reform and finds some surprising results.

Measuring Judicial Performance in Latin America

An increasing number of development scholars and policymakers are recognizing the importance of Latin American judicial reforms in shaping the ultimate outcome of the region's "dual transition." We can hardly begin to assess the conditions in which judicial systems are likely to improve, however, unless we have a means to measure judicial performance systematically across countries. This article offers just such a comprehensive cross-national measure of judicial performance for Latin America. Drawing from a survey of Latin American legal scholars and practitioners from 17 countries in the region, it seeks to establish a more valid, and therefore more useful, assessment of the performance of Latin American judiciaries than existing measures, in order to advance efforts to understand the causes and consequences of effective judicial reforms in the region. atin America has, in the last two decades, witnessed a remarkable L transition to democratic rule after a lengthy period marred by authoritarian regimes. A recent concern among scholars of this democratization process has been how deeply democratic institutions have actually taken hold in these new regimes and diminished the likelihood of authoritarian "relapse." These scholars can be divided roughly between those who assess whether democracy, in at least its minimal form, is likely to persist over time (for example, Hagopian 1998; Linz and Stepan 1996; Schneider 1995) and "quality of democracy" scholars, who focus more on the impact of democratization on such issues as political and economic inequality, the advancement of education and health care, the alleviation of poverty, and the establishment of an effective and equitable application of the rule of law (for example,

Institutional Reform and Rights Revolutions in Latin America: The Cases of Costa Rica and Colombia

Journal of Politics in Latin America, 2009

This article analyzes the conditions that allowed for expansive rights revolutions in Costa Rica and Colombia. My research suggests that many of the preconditions for rights revolutions in other regions of the world are also central to understanding Latin American cases. Of particular relevance is judicial system design including the high courts’ operating rules concerning access, standing, and judicial formality. These factors can and do mitigate the need for extensive resources and support structures necessary in other non-Latin American countries in which rights revolutions have occurred.