[Global Corruption Report 2007] Courts, Culture and Corruption

Abstract

"The justice system does not exist in a vacuum. Society, broadly understood, has a role in moulding justice systems and continually monitoring them. Marina Kurkchiyan describes how some countries have managed to internalise the principles identified with the vocation of judge, while others discover that the impartiality required of the profession conflicts with the networks of family, religion or friendship that define who judges are as individuals. Barrister Geoffrey Robertson focuses on the role the media must play in teaming up with whistleblowers to expose corruption in the courts – and the legal obstacles that are in place to prevent them doing so. In Central America, civil society organisations are exploring inventive ways to highlight judicial corruption through research, diagnostics, networks to promote dialogue about the need for judicial reform and by monitoring the implementation of international conventions, as described by Katya Salazar and Jacqueline de Gramont. Parts of society experience the justice sector, and judicial corruption, differently. In Asia and Africa, as Stephen Golub describes, NGOs are working with paralegals to raise awareness about corruption in the non-judicial justice systems to which an estimated 90 per cent of the developing world’s population resorts in order to settle their disputes. Celestine Nyamu-Musembi examines the gender dimensions of corruption in the administration of justice and argues that the currency of corruption is not always monetary."(pg 99)