Customary Law and Policy Reform : Engaging with the Plurality of Justice Systems

The importance of building effective legal and regulatory systems has long been recognized by development professionals, yet there have been few programmatic initiatives that have translated empirical evidence and political intention into sustained policy success. Justice sector reforms have frequen...

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Main Authors:	Chirayath, Leila, Sage, Caroline, Woolcock, Michael
Language:	English
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2012
Subjects:	World Development Report 2006
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9075

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recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-90752021-04-23T14:02:44Z Customary Law and Policy Reform : Engaging with the Plurality of Justice Systems Chirayath, Leila Sage, Caroline Woolcock, Michael World Development Report 2006 The importance of building effective legal and regulatory systems has long been recognized by development professionals, yet there have been few programmatic initiatives that have translated empirical evidence and political intention into sustained policy success. Justice sector reforms have frequently been based on institutional transplants, wherein 'successful� legal codes (constitutions, contract law, etc.) and institutions (courts, legal services organizations, etc.) of developed countries have been imported almost verbatim into developing countries, without thought of the country�s social and cultural situation. Further, the fact that most developing countries have customary legal systems is often overlooked by development practitioners. Many governments, however, have tried to engage with customary systems in one way or another, with differing results. This paper brings customary systems into central focus in the ongoing debate about legal and regulatory reform. It analyses the ongoing challenges and critiques of customary legal systems and examines why, despite these challenges, engaging with such systems is crucial to successful reform processes. It examines the ways customary systems have developed in three African Countries?Tanzania, Rwanda and South Africa?and draws out some of the lessons of these experiences and the implications they have for policy reform initiatives. 2012-06-26T15:37:52Z 2012-06-26T15:37:52Z 2005 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9075 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	World Development Report 2006
spellingShingle	World Development Report 2006 Chirayath, Leila Sage, Caroline Woolcock, Michael Customary Law and Policy Reform : Engaging with the Plurality of Justice Systems
geographic_facet	Africa
description	The importance of building effective legal and regulatory systems has long been recognized by development professionals, yet there have been few programmatic initiatives that have translated empirical evidence and political intention into sustained policy success. Justice sector reforms have frequently been based on institutional transplants, wherein 'successful� legal codes (constitutions, contract law, etc.) and institutions (courts, legal services organizations, etc.) of developed countries have been imported almost verbatim into developing countries, without thought of the country�s social and cultural situation. Further, the fact that most developing countries have customary legal systems is often overlooked by development practitioners. Many governments, however, have tried to engage with customary systems in one way or another, with differing results. This paper brings customary systems into central focus in the ongoing debate about legal and regulatory reform. It analyses the ongoing challenges and critiques of customary legal systems and examines why, despite these challenges, engaging with such systems is crucial to successful reform processes. It examines the ways customary systems have developed in three African Countries?Tanzania, Rwanda and South Africa?and draws out some of the lessons of these experiences and the implications they have for policy reform initiatives.
author	Chirayath, Leila Sage, Caroline Woolcock, Michael
author_facet	Chirayath, Leila Sage, Caroline Woolcock, Michael
author_sort	Chirayath, Leila
title	Customary Law and Policy Reform : Engaging with the Plurality of Justice Systems
title_short	Customary Law and Policy Reform : Engaging with the Plurality of Justice Systems
title_full	Customary Law and Policy Reform : Engaging with the Plurality of Justice Systems
title_fullStr	Customary Law and Policy Reform : Engaging with the Plurality of Justice Systems
title_full_unstemmed	Customary Law and Policy Reform : Engaging with the Plurality of Justice Systems
title_sort	customary law and policy reform : engaging with the plurality of justice systems
publisher	Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9075
_version_	1764408375569809408

Customary Law and Policy Reform : Engaging with the Plurality of Justice Systems

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