Funding Civil Justice in the Age of Fiscal Austerity: The Case of Zimbabwe
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Date
2014
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Abstract
This paper tackles the issue of civil court funding in Zimbabwe against a background
of fiscal austerity. Having gone through a decade of economic meltdown and
political transformation from 1999 to 2009, Zimbabwe has to fund a wide range of
public services from a paltry public budget of less than 5 billion United States dollars
each year. Fiscal constraints have meant that very few resources are available to
fund critical public services such as defense and justice among others. This paper
examines the pricing of civil court services in Zimbabwe with a view to determining
the scope for improved user funding of the courts. Based on a survey of court
accountants and magistrates, the study reveals that key court employees in
Zimbabwe acknowledge, in principle, the need for enhanced measures to improve
user funding of civil justice in Zimbabwe. It emerges that cost recovery rates of
between 55% and 60% are attainable for Zimbabwe’s civil courts, without
significantly compromising access to justice. The inclusion of key court employees in
the survey is a significant departure from previous studies, which have focused
unduly on the views of court users. The study recommends realignment of
incentives within the civil justice system in order to improve the sharing of litigation
risk between lawyers and consumers of civil justice services, and open more space
for user funding of courts.
Description
Funding Civil Justice in the Age of Fiscal Austerity: The Case of Zimbabwe is a published article by Davis Nyangare of the Finance department.
Keywords
fiscal austerity, Public Finance
Citation
Nyangara, D. 2014. Funding Civil Justice in the Age of Fiscal Austerity: The Case of Zimbabwe. World Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 4, no. 2, July 2014 Issue, pp. 149-159