Linn A. Hammergren, born in the USA, in 1946. Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Henry G. Schermers Fellow (1 February 2013 – 30 June 2013)
Improving Judicial Reform Assistance: Toward a More Productive Use of Donor Country Experience in Developing Country Contexts
My proposal focusses on the drafting of a short book inspired by my impression that most donor-supported rule of law or justice reforms in developing countries overlook the donors’ experience with reform back home. The work will be based on my own experience (25 years with donor programmes and related research), “the literature,” and the opportunity while in the Netherlands to explore some European justice sector programmes. It has three purposes: pulling order out of the current chaos by establishing a relational hierarchy among the strands of donors’ on-going rule of law and related assistance programmes; sorting what we know (have learned) from what we don’t know about improving justice sector performance and suggesting how to build on past lessons while simultaneously exploring new approaches and unanswered questions; and identifying how donor countries’ own reforms and reform dilemmas can be more productively incorporated into assistance work.