Judicial Reforms Must Underpin Wider Arab Change

​​When all the ideology and historical baggage are put aside, the urgent challenges of political and economic reform in the Middle East can be boiled down to a simple question: are these societies of men, or of law?

Does personal influence based on tribal, religious and military power count more than the legitimacy anchored in a system of law administered by fair and independent institutions?

Independence of the judiciary

Many Arabs fighting for democratic good governance focus increasingly these days on the imperative of the supremacy of law and the independence of the judiciary.

This, rather than elections per se, is seem as the priority foundation upon which a pluralistic democracy can be build, enshrining elected parliaments, a free and responsible press, a lively civil society, political parties, fiscal accountability and other key elements.

Richard E. Messick, senior public sector specialist at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., has examined judicial reform requirements and possibilities in the Middle East in light of similar experiences in other countries.

Gap between the Middle East and the developed world

He and his colleagues documented a large gap in the delivery of justice between the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the rest of the developed world.

It takes almost twice as long, he notes, to collect a simple debt in the courts of the MENA region (438 days) as it does in courts in the industrialized countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (230 days).

Within the MENA region, the time required for such a transaction varies widely, from a high of around 700 days in Lebanon and Syria, to lows of 27 days in Tunisia and 240 days in Morocco.

A number of reasons explain this gap, in his view, including outmoded procedures, lack of automation, general inattention to the justice sector, failure to invest in training of judges, and lack of modern equipment.

Based on experiences around the world that the World Bank has studied, the requirements for change are about 90 percent political will, and 10 percent technical.

Where there's a will to deal with the problems of the judiciary there is far and away the technical means to solve them.

The case of Dubai

Dubai, for example, has one of the most modern judiciaries in the world – fully automated performance indicators to track how well judges are moving cases, an ability to tell when lawyers are delaying cases unnecessarily.

The technical means are available in Arabic. The question is whether there is the political will to deal with the problems.

Resistance to change is common around the world, and generally emanates from lawyers, clerks and enforcement agents, large debtors, tenants' rights groups, and entrenched executive branch bureaucrats.

This is overcome in most cases through a combination of decisive political and sectarian leadership, consensus-building through dialogue, and information campaigns aimed at the public and the judicial sector.

The World Bank and others are working with Arab judiciaries to improve the situation, including serious efforts in Morocco, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza, Yemen, Tunisia and Algeria.

The experience to date, including training, automation, e-government, and management improvements, suggests that when a government commits resources to bring about change, many partners around the world are eager to provide the necessary technical and financial resources.

Messick notes that a project in Venezuela in its pilot phases reduced the time it takes to process simple debt cases and landlord-tenant disputes by almost 70 percent (from nearly 800 to just over 200 days).

"We had similar results in Ecuador and we're beginning to see similar results in the Philippines. It's been in every case a question of whether the local leadership - the judges, lawyers, the policy-makers and the ministry of justice - can utilize the resources to achieve those objectives."

The changes have come about through a combination of automation, better case management, less steps in the process, improved logistics, and targeted training. The impact has quickly spread beyond the realm of the law itself, Messick explains, giving further support to those in the Middle East who stress the rule of law issue so fervently these days.

Economic growth and better judiciary

"We found a clear correlation of the quality of the judiciary and economic growth, both across countries and between federal states within a country. We've seen some dramatic results in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil where they have federal states with very varied quality of judicial systems. In those states where the courts are more active in deciding cases and moving cases quickly, businesses have greater access to credit and there's more rapid economic development. So there's clearly a connection between economic growth and a better judiciary."

Another important dimension of the impact of the judicial sector is in the citizenry's wider perception of the entire political system.

For many citizens, the courts are one of their first or primary contacts with their government. Where that contact is positive, Messick notes, disputes are resolved quickly and fairly. When citizens are treated well by law clerks and justices, their whole attitude towards their government improves.

A heartening recent trend that the World Bank and others active in this field notice is that Arab governments and civil society activists are rapidly increasing their efforts for judicial reform, including requests for technical assistance from abroad.

"It's not us pushing for this sort of reform, in effect we're being pulled in by the region to help," Messick says. And the trend is growing.

"Ten years ago there were only a few MENA countries addressing this issue. Today I would say a majority of countries are seeking our or others' assistance to improve their courts, so it's a growing phenomenon."

© Rami G. Khouri / Agence Global 2005

Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune.

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