Institutional Reform
Institutional reform refers to making changes to the main organizing structures of a society, such as a retraining of judges, lawyers and police officers, or a restructuring of the court system.
Institutional reforms are aimed at both immediate and long term change. Understanding there were systemic and structural problems that led to the conflict is key to the use of these reforms, which can lead to long term transformation. When we reflect on the Weimar republic, for example, and the reality that the judges of Weimar were the same people with the same training who were judges before Weimar, we can see a fundamental weakness in the judiciary.
Institutional reforms are aimed at both immediate and long term change. Understanding there were systemic and structural problems that led to the conflict is key to the use of these reforms, which can lead to long term transformation. When we reflect on the Weimar republic, for example, and the reality that the judges of Weimar were the same people with the same training who were judges before Weimar, we can see a fundamental weakness in the judiciary.
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(Northern Ireland)
In 1973, Lord Diplock introduced the idea of trials without juries for those accused of terrorism in Northern Ireland. These so-called "Diplock Courts" remained in existence until the Summer of 2007. This reading explores the history of the Diplock Courts and the challenges involved in reforming the judiciary system in Northern Ireland.
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(South Africa)
Cyril Ramaphosa, chairperson of the South African Constitutional Assembly, discusses what it was like to drag "the apartheid government...kicking and screaming into the democratic South Africa" during protracted negotiations for South Africa's first democratic constitution.
