U.S. extends grants for RI's legal development

U.S. extends grants for RI's legal development

JAKARTA (JP): The Asia Foundation and the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID) yesterday signed an
agreement to extend two-year grants worth US$210,000 (Rp 483
million) for the development of Indonesia's legal system.

The aid is to be used to compile all of the Supreme Court's
decisions into a book and for the development of the Alternative
Dispute Resolution (ADR) system, an out-of-court process to
settle disputes. It is already widely practiced in many
countries.

The grants were given through the National Development
Planning Board (Bappenas). Jill Tucker represented the Asia
Foundation and the USAID and Sutadi Djajakusuma represented
Bappenas at the grants' signing ceremony yesterday.

Sutadi welcomed the initiative to compile all the decisions
made by the Supreme Court into a book as it would make them more
accessible to judges wanting to use them as precedents.

Tucker said the ADR principles have long been used in
Indonesia, citing traditional Javanese habits of holding
musyawarah, discussions, and the Sumatrans' rumpun adat, family
forum, to settle disputes among relatives.

Developing ADR includes the establishment of a policy paper
for ADR implementation, workshop sessions, and training sessions
to acquire mediating and negotiating skills, she said.

"We are still behind other countries in the implementation of
the ADR system," he said, noting that Sri Lanka, the Philippines,
China, Japan, the United States, Canada, and Australia already
use it extensively.

ADR will help reduce the backlog of cases in the Supreme
Court, he added.

Pieter J. Evers, an Asia Foundation law consultant, said the
ADR will save the disputed parties time, money, and energy as
they will no longer have to go to court.

The publication of the Supreme Court's decisions will
eventually improve the quality of the Court's decisions.

"People will be able to read the Supreme Court's decisions and
give comments on them. It will improve the judges' subsequent
decisions," he said.

USAID is a United States' government agency established for
foreign aid services for developing countries.

The Asia Foundation is a private American grant organization
promoting understanding and cooperation between the U.S. and
Asian countries. Established in 1954, it has 13 offices in Asia
and makes more than 1,500 grants a year to government agencies
and NGOs in 37 Asian and Pacific Island nations. (imn)