• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

THE THREE FACES OF JUSTICE: LEGAL TRADITIONS, LEGAL TRANSPLANTS, AND CUSTOMARY JUSTICE IN A MULTICULTURAL WORLD by JUAN CARLOS BOTERO A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) at the Georgetown University Law Center 2013 i Copyright by Juan Carlos Botero 2013 ii Abstract This research explores the institutional and procedural architecture that enables or limits access to formal and informal dispute settlement mechanisms to resolve simple disputes among individuals in developing countries. The central argument is that the urban poor (including newly arrived migrant peasants and members of indigenous communities) in developing countries, are unable to keep their traditions and ancestral dispute settlement mechanisms alive in big cities, while they are also unable to understand and utilize what to them are abstruse legal procedures of the formal courts. A proposal is made at the end of the dissertation, which includes a novel conceptual framework to analyze the problem of deficient delivery of justice (formal and customary) to the urban poor, and a methodology to quantify the multiple dimensions of the same problem in low and middle-income countries throughout the world. The contribution of this work is: first, a new conceptual framework for the comparative analysis of formal and informal justice in developed and developing countries. Second, to expand knowledge on the uneasy interaction among legal traditions, legal transplants and customary justice in the multicultural world of the XXI century. Third, a descriptive analysis of a chronic problem which affects billions of people, i.e., the lack of effective access to justice (formal or customary) for the urban poor in low and middle-income countries. Fourth, a novel account of the operation of justice among the Kogi Indians of Colombia. Fifth, a novel quantitative analysis of formal justice delivery around the world. Sixth, some practical policy recommendations iii for judicial reform, related to the institutional and procedural architecture that enables or limits access to justice by the urban poor in developing countries. A multi-method approach was utilized in this dissertation, including: first, an extensive literature review of comparative law sources dealing with the various dimensions of the delivery of formal and informal justice around the world. Second, a new quantitative analysis of new data on the operation of formal dispute resolution mechanisms in 66 countries. Third, in-depth interviews with customary justice authorities in Colombia and Liberia, and meetings with formal and customary justice operators in a dozen countries. Conclusions draw on traditional legal research methods, as well as on qualitative and quantitative methods from the social sciences. Keyword searching terms: Comparative Law; Customary Justice; Access to Justice; Multicultural Law; Legal Transplants. iv I am grateful to my dissertation advisor, professor Sherman Cohn, for extensive guidance, challenging discussions and invaluable advice over five years, and to professors Charles Abernathy, Carl F. Goodman, and Robert Dalton for their helpful comments and suggestions. To Angela Maria, Maria, Helena and Sofia. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 Part 1. Theoretical Model - The “Judicial Equilibrium” ....................................... 13 Part 2. Legal Traditions ......................................................................................... 24 Chapter 1. Rome, England and France ................................................................................ 24 Chapter 2. Two Models: Legislative Control (Civil-Law) vs. Judicial Discretion (Common-Law) ....................................................................................................................... 46 Chapter 3. Legal Traditions and Judicial Equilibrium ....................................................... 54 Chapter 4. Empirical Confirmation: Quantitative Analysis of Justice Delivery In High- Income Countries. ................................................................................................................... 59 Part 3. Legal Transplants ....................................................................................... 65 Chapter 1. Empirical Confirmation: Quantitative Analysis of Justice Delivery in Low and Middle-Income Countries .............................................................................................. 67 Chapter 2. Legal “Transplants” and Access to Justice ...................................................... 76 Chapter 3. Legal Transplants and Complex Litigation in Low and Middle-Income Countries ................................................................................................................................ 102 Chapter 4. Legal Elites, Legal Bureaucracies and Rent-Seeking in Transplant Countries ................................................................................................................................................. 107 Part 4. Customary Justice ...................................................................................... 116 Chapter 1. The ‘Bbc News’ Perspective of Customary Justice ...................................... 117 Chapter 2. Customary Justice, as Perceived by Users – The African Tree ................... 126 Chapter 3. Community Pressure and Judicia Dei ............................................................. 131 Chapter 4. ‘Sassy-Wood’ Justice in Liberia ........................................................................ 137 Chapter 5. Justice among the Kogi Indians of Sierra Nevada ........................................ 145 Chapter 6. State-Customary Interface and the Problem of Enforcement of Culturally Conflictive Decisions ............................................................................................................ 178 Chapter 7. Customary Justice among the Urban Poor In Low and Middle-Income Countries ................................................................................................................................ 187 Part 5. Synthesis: The Third Face of Justice ....................................................... 203 Chapter 1. Effectiveness of the Law, Justice Delivery, Violence and Injustice ........... 205 Chapter 2. The Multiple Faces of Justice ........................................................................... 209 vi Chapter 3. The ‘Blackboxing’ of Historical Political Compromises Within Generally Accepted Principles of Procedure ...................................................................................... 231 Chapter 4. The Multicultural Judicial Equilibrium Model............................................... 240 Chapter 5. Conclusion: The ‘Wig and Gown’ and the ‘Sassy-Wood’ Justice in Comparative Perspective ...................................................................................................... 251 References1 ........................................................................................................... 263 Appendix 1. Quantitative Analysis of The Delivery of Justice in 66 Countries ... 279 1 Full citation of works cited in this dissertation is included in the References section, at page 263. vii INTRODUCTION Ordinary people in low and middle-income countries1 generally know two faces of justice, the “Wig and Gown” and the “Sassy-Wood,” faces of justice, which belong to the formal and customary systems of dispute resolution (e.g., pictures below). These two faces of justice are increasingly misaligned with the changing reality of a globalized yet multicultural world. A third face of justice appears to be needed. Left image: Judges of Ghana. Source: http://www.judicial.gov.gh/index.php?option=com_rsgallery2&Itemid=47 Right image: Ghana’s customary Chief. Source: Google images. The multiple notions of justice There are profound differences among societies on fundamental social values, which have impacted the role assigned to law and justice in them.2 One of the natural 1A generally accepted classification of countries according to per-capita income was developed by the World Bank, available at: http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-classifications. Last visited, May 25, 2013. 2 Professor Huntington describes these differences between two cultures (China and the USA), as follows: “At the broadest level the Confucian ethos pervading many Asian societies stressed the values of authority, hierarchy, the subordination of individual rights and interests, the importance of consensus, the avoidance of confrontation, ‘saving face,’ and, in general, the supremacy of the state over society and of society over the individual. In addition, Asians tended to think of the evolution of their societies in terms of centuries and millennia and to give priority to maximizing long-term gains. These attitudes contrasted with the 1 consequences of the recognition of these differences is that certain balance in the allocation of power and responsibilities between the state, the community, and the individual that may be perfectly suited to a particular society in a particular time, may not fit another society or a different time. Professor Goodman’s account3 of his first visit to the Japanese Supreme Court provides a colorful illustration of the multiple representations of justice: as most American lawyers, he was expecting to see the image

Load more

  301

Copy Link