NCJ Number
189409
Date Published
May 2001
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Part of a five-country study, this report presents the results of a case study analysis to identify the links between access to justice and poverty, as well as the governance-related factors that impede access to justice for the poorest segments of the population in Colombia's Andean Region.
Abstract
Based on a study of three cases, this report describes and analyzes the patterns of demand for formal and informal mechanisms to resolve disputes by samples of the rural population in Colombia's Andean Region. After a descriptive section on the patterns of access to justice, the report focuses on two main analyses: the economic impact of dispute-resolution mechanisms on the average rural family's economic net worth; and the governance-related roots of the problems that affect formal compared to informal dispute resolution mechanisms. The analysis shows that the advantages of the informal system include the reduction in the outcome-related uncertainty faced by the poorest segments of the rural population in the three sampled regions; the increase in the access of marginalized groups to a framework within which solutions to their conflict emerge as a result of a participatory consensual approach that includes the parties and the complaint board as a facilitator; and less abuse of discretion due to the more predictable application of rules to resolve a conflict. Other advantages of the informal mechanisms of dispute resolution are lower users' costs, the provision of more transparent procedures, the provision of enhanced options available, and the provision of better practices and mechanisms than those offered by civil courts. The analysis identifies seven governance failures that undermine the effective and fair use of civil courts by poorer segments of the population. 4 tables