Judicial Reform and Economic Development: A Survey of the Issues

The Many Legal Institutions that Support Contractual Commitments

“…With rare exception (Grajzl and Murrell 2003) the role of these institutions has generally been overlooked in, for example, legal reform efforts in transition economies, where attention has focused instead on the development of contract rules and independent courts. (Messick 1999) Lawyers, however, play a critical role in connecting litigants with law and courts and in the process of legal development. The institutions governing the production and allocation of legal services play a crucial role in determining the cost of accessing both contract law and the many other laws (evidence, procedure, judicial selection and conduct, etc.)…”

“…Nor do we know very much about how, in practice, specific "common law" systems differ from specific "civil code" systems. As Messick (1999) has observed, most of our questions-both theoretical and empirical-about what constitutes effective legal design in a given setting remain unanswered. Without a far more detailed appreciation of the institutions that interact to produce "contract law" we cannot hope to be able to investigate the relative cost and efficacy of institutions in different environments and to develop effective policy prescriptions for improving economic development and growth through improved contract enforcement.…”

Building institutions in post‐conflict African economies

“…The index is interpreted as a measure of security of contract and property rights (though clearly this abstracts from the relative importance, or weights, that investors place on the different components). Messick (1999) refers to similar measures as proxies for judicial system performance, which may be too broad an interpretation. The various indexes show strong correlations with growth and investment (that is, without implying any particular direction of causation).…”

“…Broadly, judicial reform concerns strengthening the judiciary in various ways, such as improving the selection, monitoring and discipline of judges; in-service training of judges; specific measures to increase independence of the judiciary; training of other legal professionals, creating bar associations and improving law schools; creating small claims courts and dispute resolution mechanisms; and providing resources and managerial training more rapidly to process cases (see Messick 1999). Legal reform encompasses revising or drafting commercial codes, bankruptcy statutes and corporate law, and improving the resources and management within a range of related government regulatory agencies, such as financial supervision and competition policy.…”

Can Efficient Institutions Induce Cooperation Among Low Trust Agents?

“…For example, the experiences from trying to export rule-of-law type of institutions from the United States (or other countries) to developing nations have not been very successful (Messick 1999;Andrews 2010). …”