Judicial Strengthening to Improve Court Effectiveness (JUSTICE) Program

In 2019, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) completed the six-year USAID-funded Judicial Strengthening to Improve Court Effectiveness (JUSTICE) project in the Philippines. Our work in the Philippines continued through our partnerships with the Supreme Court, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, and other legal institutions under the five-year, USAID-funded Access to Justice and Rule of Law in the Philippines program, which ran from 2018-2023.

In 2012, the Philippine and US governments entered into the Partnership for Growth agreement to address the most serious constraints to economic growth and development in the Philippines. One of the partnership’s main objectives was to create a more transparent, predictable and consistent legal and regulatory regime and to strengthen the rule of law. An outgrowth of this was ABA ROLI’s Judicial Strengthening to Improve Court Effectiveness (JUSTICE) program. The Partnership for Growth identified docket congestion and case delay as major barriers to justice and economic growth in the Philippines. ABA ROLI worked with the judiciary to overcome these barriers. Through the JUSTICE project, ABA ROLI rolled out a court automation system, e-Court, to bolster trial courts’ efficiency and decongest dockets. This initiative draws upon ABA ROLI's collaboration with the Philippine Supreme Court to automate the appellate courts by developing a Case Management Information System (CMIS).

The automation through the eCourt management system resulted in speedier resolution of cases. The eCourt tracks and automates case-flow processes from the initial filing of cases to their disposal and the execution of judgments. Basic case information is accessible to the public at eKiosks located across the Philippines. An eRaffle system randomly assigns cases to judges, reducing opportunities for corruption. This six-year project concluded in 2018, and the system is now at work at Halls of Justice in 12 locations throughout the Philippines. As a result of the ABA ROLI-developed FIND JUSTICE PH mobile phone application, citizens can now access information about local courts and legal services in the country. 

Other JUSTICE achievements included the support of court-decongestion efforts, the use of alternative dispute resolution, and better enforcement of financial rehabilitation laws. Due in part to earlier JUSTICE activities to increase protection of intellectual property rights, the Philippines was removed from the US Trade Representative’s Intellectual Property Watch List in 2014.