The BBC has a pretty terrifying article about “justice” in the DR Congo:
“I’ve already paid the judge, so why should I pay you too?” is a question lawyers have to contend with from their clients.
Lawyer Octavius Nasena recounts a case when someone dared to question why his opponent in a property dispute had brazenly given an envelope full of money to the judge.
“After he complained, the judge called the police to arrest my client on charges of insulting him,” Mr Nasena told the BBC.
The lawyer complained to the authorities, who ordered the judge’s chambers to be searched, despite the judge’s protestations that no-one had the right to know the contents of his private correspondence.
An envelope matching the one described by the client was found containing $1,000 in cash, and the judge was eventually suspended, although he was not disbarred.
“Our judges are not corrupt,” says Philippe Vokayandiki Mbumba. “If you put most judges in the world in the conditions we have to put up with, they would simply refuse to work.” Judges in DR Congo do not get paid a salary, just an allowance which until recently was just $100 a month. Mr Mbumba says that paying judges properly is the first step towards eliminating the temptation to take bribes.
Despite this, one lawyer says that the situation is slightly better than in the days of Mobutu Sese Seko, when his word was law. Congo has a long way to go, and change must be made to improve the judiciary, ending bribery, and curbing arbitrary government power. The laws are fine in theory, but there is much improvement to be made in the actual implementation of justice.
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COMMENTS / 3 COMMENTS
Smitten Eagle added these pithy words on 23 Oct 06 at 12:36 pmI see an interesting nexus between this post and the thread on the best colonizers.
One of the advantages the Anglophone countries generally have is Common-Law, which generally includes trial by a more or less random jury of one’s peers. Pretty much all of the Continental colonizers (I’m not so certain about Japan) use the Napoleonic system, which means trial by a judge.
It seems that the Common Law system is superior in terms of ability to withstand corruption better than the Continental system. Bribing a random jury is more difficult than bribing a single judge who has vested interests in his position and his profession (that is, making more or less money by way of dispensing more or less justice.)
Chuckles added these pithy words on 24 Oct 06 at 12:19 amWhile it is certainly true that there is a common law inheritance – the key issue is the implementation; and many times, in implementation, there is simply no difference between postcolonial states. I am skeptical about prospects for improvement: Even with a long term view – are there any incentives for a corrupt postcolonial state to embrace reform?
jomama added these pithy words on 24 Oct 06 at 2:02 pmPutting someone in power deciding the fate others then expecting to avoid corruption is the biggest illusion of all time, the way I see it.
The second biggest illusion is that this power can be reformed to something better than power.
