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

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.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 68

Keywords: Law and Development, Judicial reform, corruption, Mongolia, rule of law

JEL Classification: K1, K19, K33, K40

Accepted Paper Series