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Judicial Reform: The U.S. and U.K. Experience

Richard E. Messick

World Bank

June 2004

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Let us not turn to America in order to slavishly copy the institutions she has fashioned for herself but in order that we may better understand what suits us; let us look for instruction rather than models.

Alexis De Toqueville, 1848

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Three Lessons

1.Process Never Ending

2.Demands Real Data

3.Opposition Can Be Overcome

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1. Process Never Ends

English Experience --

First Effort – 1340: Parliamentary inquiry into causes of court delay

Latest One - June 2005: Proposals to Reduce Delays in Criminal Trials

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2. Demands Real Data

U.S. -- Civil Justice Act of 1990

U.K. --Woolf Reforms of 1995

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3. Overcoming Opposition

Typical Sources –– Lawyers, clerks, enforcement agents– Large debtors, tenants’ rights groups– Executive branch bureaucrats

Methods for Overcoming –– Divide and conquer– Expand Debate/Information campaigns– Leadership