Critics agree that much of Southeast Asia desperately needs judicial reform and rule of law. Yet, there is remarkably little comparative scholarship on law and legal institutions in the region. In this blog, I'll follow constitutional developments in Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Clearing up the backlog
The Indonesian Supreme Court docket is notorious for its backlog. According to The Jakarta Post, there were 22,315 cases pending before the court just in 2010. Of those, the court only adjudicated 13,885, leaving the rest for the remaining year. Now, the Supreme Court recently announced that it would organize itself into five chambers in order to handle the large caseload and allow judges to develop expertise in particular fields of law. The chambers will cover civil, criminal, religious, administrative, and military law. I certainly hope this reform tames the court's docket. However, the Supreme Court still doesn't possess control over its docket and lacks discretion to reject appeals - the one reform that is almost guaranteed to reduce its caseload.
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