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Reforming Law Empowers the Poor
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Law is the “intellectual bridge” supporting all Asian Development Bank (ADB) activities. It is an integral part of its interventions, whether the emphasis is on economic growth, on social development, or on governance.
People are poor—and tend to remain so—as long as they cannot participate in the decisions that shape their lives. By pressing for legal and policy reform, ADB’s developmental policy is transformed into a reality that empowers people.
Since 1993, ADB has initiated or played a key role in about 400 projects aimed at reform of the law, and of the legal and judicial policies and institutions in its developing member countries.
Through cutting-edge ventures like the Pakistan Access to Justice Project, the largest legal and judicial reform program ever in Asia, ADB is writing the script for future work in the field. Another project looking at legal identity and access to services, still in its early stages, holds similar promise.
No other organization is doing as much in Asia and the Pacific to improve legal systems.
In essence, ADB’s reform efforts can be viewed as strengthening a range of fair and equitable interactions between citizens, businesses, and state institutions.
A number of policy changes went into this view. The adoption in 1995 of the Governance Policy spurred activity in the area of legal reform.
Then, in 1999 in its Poverty Reduction Strategy, ADB looked more closely at the equality of rights in defining poverty, moving away from a definition based too much on income. It thereby focused more attention on issues of law and policy.
"People are poor--and tend to remain so--as long as they cannot participate in the decisions that shape their lives. By pressing for legal and policy reform, ADB's developmental policy is transformed into a reality that empowers people
Among a huge body of work, the Pakistan Access to Justice Program is ADB’s largest and most ambitious. In December 2001, ADB lent $350 million to the Pakistan Government for programs to boost legal literacy and public access to legal services, and to help improve court facilities and procedures.
Early results, though tentative, are impressive: in Peshawar, the number of legal cases disposed of in 2002 jumped 222%. And in 2002–2003, new member inspection teams ensured for the first time that all courts in North West Frontier Province were inspected and the performance of judges assessed.
Over a 3–4 year period in the run-up to the plan, designers ensured that key issues were addressed through several preparatory technical assistance projects, in particular, by looking at why early efforts at reform had failed.
ADB has also made ongoing evaluation a lynchpin of the access program. Under system monitoring and evaluating performance, each new loan tranche requires an annual and satisfactory report on progress.
To ensure access for all, ADB channels its work on law and policy reform into four areas: strengthening the environment for economic growth; raising awareness of legal rights and obligations; supporting equality of access to justice; and contributing to regional cooperation on issues of law and policy.
Ten years since the work began, projects have focused on legislative and institutional reform, on transparency and dissemination of information, on capacity building and institutionalizing training, and on research.
In international trade, for example, ADB helped the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as it prepared for accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Under a technical assistance grant, it assisted the Government with drafting of legislation to ensure consistency with WTO rules and helped it understand the major issues of the WTO Doha round.
Another project will assist the PRC with two major challenges arising from WTO membership: how to address the legal and institutional issues arising from judicial review; and how to strengthen the capacity of the court system to conduct review of WTO matters.
Other programs, meanwhile, go to the heart of human “legitimacy.” It is estimated that annually, 63% of births in South Asia are unregistered.
Yet, registration is fundamental to social inclusion. Proof of legal identity can influence access to education, immunization, property rights, and financial services. Registration is also potentially useful in efforts to curb child labor, child marriage, and child prostitution and trafficking.
A grant study in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, and Timor-Leste will explore the relationship between the existence of proof of legal identity and access to resources.
The broad scope of ADB’s reform programs reflects the diversity of economic, legal, social, and political systems among its members, and underscores the importance ADB puts on responding to their requests.
"The broad scope of ADB's reform programs reflects the diversity of economic, legal, social and political systems among its members, and underscores the importance ADB puts on responding to their requests
That will remain true in the future.
At the same time, however, a much broader view is required of what constitutes “legal system,” and hence, access to justice. The legal system must be viewed more expansively. It must be seen to encompass the rights and obligations of any individual, or private or public institution that is supported by formal or informal enforcement mechanisms.
Similarly, definitions of access to justice need to move away from a narrow focus on courts, judges, prosecutors, and public defenders. Justice must be understood as a relationship between the public goods and services institutions deliver (predictably, affordably, and accountably) and the poor people’s access to them. It is in the balance of this relationship that justice, or injustice, is dispensed.
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