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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2004

BRUCE M. WILSON ,
JUAN CARLOS RODRÍGUEZ CORDERO  and
ROGER HANDBERG
BRUCE M. WILSON
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Central Florida
JUAN CARLOS RODRÍGUEZ CORDERO
Affiliation:
Consorcio Jurídico Metropolitano, Costa Rica
ROGER HANDBERG
Affiliation:
Center for Space Policy and Law, University of Central Florida
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Abstract

‘Judicial independence is a means to a strong judicial institution, which is a means to personal liberty and prosperity.’ United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer.

Starting in the 1980s, and accelerating through the 1990s, international financial institutions (IFIs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and development agencies funnelled considerable resources into judicial reform and rule of law programmes in virtually every Latin American and Caribbean country. The assumption was that reformed court systems would foster free market economic development strategies. This article examines the impact of two frequently advocated aspects of judicial reform, judicial access and judicial independence, on economic policy making in Costa Rica. We argue that there is a potentially significant disjuncture between the sponsors' expectations of the judicial reforms' economic impact and the observed outcomes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , August 2004 , pp. 507 - 531
Copyright
2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The authors wish to thank the following individuals who offered insightful comments on previous drafts of this article: Richard Messick, Linn Hammergren, Luis Fernando Solano Carrera, President of the Sala IV, Ronan Wilson, Kerstin Hamann, Rachel Sieder and the anonymous referees of JLAS. We would also like to thank John Collins for research assistance. Wilson would like to thank the Office of Sponsored Research, University of Central Florida, for funding part of this research through grant no. 11-80-936/11809002.