Heading South but Looking North: Globalization and Law Reform in Latin America

Throughout Latin America, law reform is in the air. After decades of neglect, its legal systems are experiencing substantial if not drastic processes of reform and transformation. The administration of justice in particular has been singled out as inefficient, if not corrupt, inaccessible to most, unable or unwilling to respond to human rights abuses, and largely irrelevant to the needs of modern economies. These reform processes respond to global and domestic actors and pressures. On the surface, both share the goal of helping to cement good governance, including the rule of law , throughout Latin Ame rica. This apparent goal consensus, however, can be broken down into two different orientations which reveal not only agreement but also overlapping and sometimes conflicting goals: