Governance Global Practice Public Disclosure Authorized GOOD PRACTICES FOR COURTS: Helpful Elements for Good Court Performance and the World Bank’s Quality of Judicial Process Indicators Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Key Elements, Lessons Learned, and Good Practice Examples Public Disclosure Authorized Heike Gramckow, Omniah Ebeid with Erica Bosio and Jorge Luis Silva Mendez GOOD PRACTICES FOR COURTS 1 © 2016 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000 Internet: www.worldbank.org Disclaimer This document is published to promote the World Bank’s work in the development community with the least possible delay. The manuscript of this document therefore has not been prepared in accordance with the procedures appropriate to formally edited texts. This document is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. 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Contact Details Governance Global Practice The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20433 USA worldbank.org/justice | [email protected] Heike Gramckow, Omniah Ebeid with Erica Bosio and Jorge Luis Silva Mendez Cover Photos: Heike Gramckow 2 GOOD PRACTICES FOR COURTS GOOD PRACTICES FOR COURTS: Helpful Elements for Good Court Performance and the World Bank’s Quality of Judicial Process Indicators Key Elements, Lessons Learned, and Good Practice Examples Heike Gramckow, Omniah Ebeid with Erica Bosio and Jorge Luis Silva Mendez Foreword and Acknowledgments An effective and efficient justice system is essential for sustained economic growth. In a well-functioning, independent, and productive justice system, decisions are taken within a reasonable time and predictably, are effectively enforced, and individual rights, including property rights, are adequately protected. Among other objectives, the efficiency of the judicial system is important for creating a good business climate, attracting foreign direct investment, securing tax revenues, and supporting economic growth (Bénassy-Quéré, Coupet, and Mayer 2007). Research has shown that weak contract enforcement, for example, raises the cost of borrowing and shortens loan maturities (Bae and Goyal 2009), with a resulting negative effect on investment and GDP (Jappelli, Pagano, and Bianco 2002). Weak court enforcement systems have also been linked to late payments, which can lead to liquidity issues for companies and increase insolvency (Intrum Justitia 2013). Since the publication of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2005, the importance of well-functioning courts to strengthening the investment climate and ultimately to reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity has been brought to the forefront and become internationally recognized (World Bank 2004). Indicators of commercial court performance, as well as business community perceptions of and trust in the courts, are a part of the World Bank Group’s (WBG) country-level investment climate assessments and its influential Investment Climate Surveys and Doing Business reports (see World Bank 2016). Court performance has also become an element of European Union (EU) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) accession.1 Helping countries to improve commercial court operations and ensure greater accessibility and more effective delivery of services is an important part of the development assistance provided by the WBG, the OECD, the EU, and other bilateral donors. This publication was developed to assist WBG teams, as well as those of other development partners and their client counterparts, especially commercial courts, in this effort. This document was developed as a result of discussions that took place in 2014 and 2015 with OECD colleagues, Chloe Lelievre and Tatyana Teplova, who were interested in good practice examples, benchmarking options, and performance measures for courts in general, with a special view to assisting OECD accession countries. At the same time, the methodology for the “enforcing contracts” indicator included in the WBG’s annual Doing Business report was adjusted, adding the new “quality of judicial processes index” to the assessment. The set of 15 good practice areas that are tracked not only provide a way for courts to assess how well they are performing on this indicator scale, but also indicate areas that could benefit from improvements. 1 For information on the OECD accession process, see http://www.oecd.org/legal/accession-process.htm. II GOOD PRACTICES FOR COURTS While working with several client counterparts and some WBG assessment teams, it became clear that several of these good practice areas required some clarification. Equally important, client countries immediately requested more information about implementation requirements, lessons learned, and constructive good practice examples that would help courts assess their own performance and develop new practices that are a good fit for their particular jurisdiction. This publication was developed in an effort to respond to these client country requests. We hope that the information included here will be helpful to courts across the globe and useful to our colleagues at the Bank and OECD and other development partner organizations. The authors would like to thank the World Bank’s internal and external reviewers of an earlier concept note and draft of this document: Chloe Lelievre (OECD Policy Analyst, Justice Services, Public Governance) and Tatyana Teplova (OECD Senior Policy Analyst, Justice Services, Public Governance), Klaus Decker (World Bank Senior Public Sector Specialist, Governance), Pilar Salgado Otonel (World Bank Senior Private Sector Development Specialist, Trade and Competitiveness [T&C]), and Justin Yap (World Bank Senior Private Sector Development Specialist, T&C). Their feedback and comments have helped shape this paper into what we hope will be a useful contribution to the continuous reform efforts of many courts around the world. We also thank Patricia Carley for her excellent and skilled editing and Jihane El-Khoury Roederer for her creative design. GOOD PRACTICES FOR COURTS III IV GOOD PRACTICES FOR COURTS Contents Foreword and Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................II About the Authors ......................................................................................................................................................VI Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................1 Evaluating Judicial Performance ..........................................................................................................................1 The New Court Performance Indicator: Quality of Process .................................................................3 Expanding Knowledge About Good Court Practices and Reform Efforts...................................6 1. Good Practice Area: Court Structures and Proceedings ............................7 1.1 AVAILABILITY OF A SPECIALIZED COMMERCIAL COURT OR COURT DIVISION ...........................................................7 1.2 AVAILABILITY OF A SMALL CLAIMS COURT OR SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES FOR SMALL CLAIMS ....................... 14 1.3 AVAILABILITY OF PRETRIAL ATTACHMENT ............................................................................................................................ 21 1.4 CRITERIA USED TO ASSIGN JUDGES ......................................................................................................................................... 30 2. Good Practice Area: Case Management .....................................................37 2.1 REGULATIONS SETTING TIME STANDARDS FOR KEY COURT EVENTS ......................................................................... 37 2.2 REGULATIONS ON ADJOURNMENTS AND CONTINUANCES ..........................................................................................