Rotten to the Core: Project Capture and the Failure of Judicial Reform in Mongolia
Brent T. White
4 E. Asia L. Rev. 209 (2009) [Download]
Abstract
Despite claims by international donor agencies that judicial reform efforts in Mongolia have been a great success, this Article argues that Mongolian courts continue to grossly lack integrity, transparency, and accountability—and are perceived by the Mongolian public as more corrupt today than when donor-funded judicial reform efforts began almost a decade ago. This Article further argues that the failure of judicial reform in Mongolia stems in significant part from the “capture” of donor-funded judicial reform efforts by elites within the Mongolian judicial sector. It concludes that the inherent tendency for project capture in the “institution-building” approach to judicial reform that international donor agencies favor should add to calls to limit the approach in favor of bottom-up efforts to push for meaningful judicial reform.
