Legal reform is the process of examining laws and regulations to see how they are working and what changes should be made. It can include a broad range of activities from making courts more inclusive to improving legal aid services. It is important that these changes are made in constructive collaboration with national actors and aligned with international rule of law standards. UNDP is engaged in these collaborative efforts with governments across the globe, providing expertise and support for a wide range of legislative reforms, including those related to civil justice, criminal justice and prisons.
It is difficult to overstate the impact of modern court decisions on society. Crusading judges in Italy led to the collapse of the party system; activist Spanish judges ruled against General Augusto Pinochet; and judicial activism in Brazil helped spark political change. Yet while these signs of dramatic change can be seen, the old law and development orthodoxy continues to prevail: faith that Western legal systems can be transplanted tout court to new markets and emerging democracies; a strong emphasis on legal technical assistance; and a heavy focus on education.
Legal systems inevitably evolve in a ragged, complex way that is often unpredictable. The influence of ‘outside’ events or situations (wars, plagues, or revolutions) may be massive, but the precise form that such change takes is almost always shaped by existing structures and cultural facts. These forces will bend, mediate, or channel the ‘outside’ influences through prismatic effects.