Oral Justice
I just came back from a visit to Bogota. The Doing Business reform team (see picture) was there this week to learn about progress with business regulatory reforms in Colombia. Several positive reforms are taking place: in trading across borders, in registering property, in taxes, and in enforcing contracts.
The most impressive reform is happening in the courts. The main feature is moving to oral presentation of evidence in commercial (and other civil) disputes. This is done to reduce delays. If reforms in other countries like Mexico (2005) and Georgia (2007) are any indication, Colombian litigants are in for a major improvement.
What's the big deal? Well, now every piece of evidence has to be presented to the judge in writing. Each party to the commercial dispute writes and submits to the judge and their opponent. They, in turn, take time to read and respond. And so it goes.
Who came up with such crazy system? The Spanish colonizers. But that's another story.
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Oral procedures are fine provided that the judges sitting on the case are actively involved in managing the oral testimony and are prepared for this active role. Are Columbia's judges being trained for this likely quite new role? Have they been given the procedural tools to control lawyers and parties in their oral testimony?
These implementation issues and prerequisites are likely to determine the real payoff from the switch to oral procedures. And I hope that no one expects the changes to occur overnight or even within the DB annual review cycle.
Posted by: David | Apr 9, 2008 9:13:12 AM