Nov 5, 2007

Sponsor: Fellows

Rule of Law and Democracy in Central America: The 2007 Central American Report on Legal and Institutional Governance

There is broad consensus among policymakers and academics that a political and legal system that guarantees the rule of law is essential for a functioning democracy. However, laws that are not properly formulated and institutionally enforced make even the best legal systems irrelevant. Based on this assumption, the Observatory of Democracy in Central America designed a system of indicators on legal and institutional governance in Central America and compiled the information into the five volume 2007 Central American Report on Legal and Institutional Governance. With nearly 100 variables and 475 legal indicators that measure issues such as constitutional law, judiciary and parliamentary powers, checks and balances, human rights, and other relevant issues, the new report provides a comprehensive tool in assessing the health of Central American governance and legal system.

In his presentation Editor-in-Chief Jaime Ordóñez discussed the main findings of the recently released volume.

With comments by:

  • Mr. Olav Kjorven
  • Dr. Adrian Torrealba

Dr. Jaime Ordóñez is director of Centro Estudios Para el Futuro, a San-Jose-based institute that promotes democracy, human rights, and state reform in Central America. He is also director of the department of state theory at the University of Costa Rica's Law School. From 2000 to 2001, he was Costa Rica's special ambassador to the Organization of American States, where he directed its country's negotiations related to the Inter-American Democratic Charter. He has taught constitutional and human rights law at a number of U.S. universities, including Columbia, Tulane, and the University of Maryland at College Park. In addition to writing over ten books in Spanish, including Democracy Without Rules (2004), Security, Military Forces, and Human Rights in Latin America (1999), and Human Rights: Indigenous Peoples (1995), he also has drafted ombudsman laws for Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, and Uruguay. From March to July 2007 Dr. Ordóñez was a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at NED, where he continued to work on compiling the 2007 Central American Report on Legal and Institutional Governance.

Mr. Olav Kjorven is director of the Development Policy Bureau at the UNDP in New York and one of the executive coordinators of the UN Commission for the Legal Empowerment for the Poor.

Dr. Adrian Torrealba is member of the Latin American Association of Tax Law and former general director of the Costa Rican Revenue Office (Director de Tributación Directa).