Improving the Performance of Justice Institutions

Abstract

This paper presents a selection of
 experiences from Organization for Economic Cooperation and
 Development (OECD) countries in managing justice
 institutions which are the most relevant for performance
 improvement of their counterparts in Latin America. The
 scope of the paper is mostly limited to the courts, but
 comprises all types of courts: specialized courts as well as
 courts of general jurisdiction, civil as well as criminal
 and administrative courts, first instance as well as
 appellate and supreme courts. Issues of legal reform,
 judicial training, alternative dispute resolution or access
 for the poor are not considered in this paper. The first
 chapter provides an overview of the justice sector reform
 experience in Latin America over the last two decades, and
 how these reforms coincide with or follow OECD country
 trends. The second chapter outlines the context of the
 debates regarding the performance and quality of justice
 services in OECD countries prior to the 1990s. The third
 chapter discusses the transition from traditional justice
 reform approaches in OECD countries to the New Public
 Management (NPM) approaches that began in the 1990s. The
 fourth chapter presents five major cases of reforms in
 public expenditure, human resources, and organizational
 restructuring in the justice sectors of five different
 countries. The fifth chapter describes recent trends in OECD
 countries regarding quality controls in court service
 delivery which share approaches with the private sector. The
 paper concludes with some suggestions about areas where
 Latin American judiciaries may benefit from experiences of
 OECD countries.