Rotten to the Core: Project Capture and the Failure of Judicial Reform in Mongolia

Authors

Brent T. White

Publication Date

Fall 2009

Document Type

Article

First Page

209

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.

Repository Citation

Brent T. White, Rotten to the Core: Project Capture and the Failure of Judicial Reform in Mongolia, 4 U. Pa. E. Asia L. Rev. 209 (2009).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/ealr/vol4/iss2/3