Educating and Equipping Tomorrow’s Justice Reformersin Indonesia
The Foundation is
supporting the
establishment of
dozens of legal
education clinics
across eight leading
Indonesian universities.
THE NEXT GENERATION OF REFORM
Justice sector reform efforts have reached a critical juncture in Indonesia. For the lastdecade, the nation’s highest courts, prosecutors,and police have driven reform efforts toincrease citizens’ access to justice, basic rightsand security, and to uphold the rule of law.While the pace and progress of justice reformhas been inconsistent, the reform effort hasbenefited from episodes of thoughtful leader-ship among the senior ranks of the SupremeCourt of Indonesia, the Attorney General’sOffice, and other state institutions. Theseepisodes have been supported by partnershipsforged with civil society organizations to definethe reform agenda, craft blueprints for change,and facilitate informed public engagement and oversight.
As a result, public pressure has grown for thenext generation of judges, prosecutors, and otherpublic officials to be more reform-minded, better attuned to human rights and the conse-quences of gender-based discrimination, andinclined to take a more principled approach indecision-making and combating corruption.
There remain, however, several obstacles toreform in the justice sector. While there is noshortage of law graduates to fill entry-levelpositions in the civil service, top law graduates often forego public service and aredrawn to the private bar or business careers.When in school, law students have few oppor-tunities to gain exposure to the practical skillsneeded to serve as judges or prosecutors.Further, law schools and civil society organiza-tions have limited ability to effectively collabo-rate on research and advocacy to inform andpromote reform processes.
Through the E2J program, The AsiaFoundation is working in partnership with university law schools, civil society organiza-tions, and formal justice institutions to respondto these challenges. The Foundation is backedby the expertise of the Asian Law Center of theUniversity of Washington Law School and thePartnership for Governance Reform (Kemitraan).
PRACTICE-ORIENTED EDUCATION
The E2J program has four highly interrelatedcomponents: clinical legal education clinics,research projects relevant to issues of law
Clinical legal education
clinics are at the heart
of the E2J program,
bringing togther law
faculties, civil society
groups and formal
justice institutions in a
mutually beneficial
relationship.
The Asia Foundation
has supported justice
sector reform in
Indonesia for more
than 40 years.
The Asia Foundation’s justice sector programs have supported Indonesian efforts to strengthen legal institutions, improve legal education, and drive reform for more than 40 years. The Educating and EquippingTomorrow’s Justice Reformers (E2J) program furthers this aim. This four-year initiative, funded by USAID, isworking to improve the performance of Indonesia’s justice system by partnering with university law schools,civil society organizations, and formal justice institutions to provide a new generation with the knowledge, skills,opportunities, and incentives to pursue careers in public service and to contribute to justice sector reform.
INDONESIA
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www.asiafoundation.org
reform, curriculum development, and supportfor civil society organizations. Each componentserves to reinforce and enhance the effectivenessof the others.
At the core of program are the law clinics,which provide students with a crucial opportunity to develop their practical legalskills - an element lacking from many univer-sity law courses. The Foundation is supportingthe law faculties of eight leading Indonesianuniversities to develop clinics that offer stu-dents hands-on experience in civil law, criminallaw, anti-corruption law and public legal educa-tion on environmental, women’s, and children’sissues. The law clinics bring law facultiestogether with civil society organizations andformal legal institutions to provide a forum forstudents to apply their theoretical knowledge ina practical setting.
SUPPORTING DEVELOPMENT OF ENGAGING
AND PRACTICAL TEACHING MATERIALS
A central feature of the law clinics is theclose collaboration between civil society orga-nizations and law faculties. The program alsooffers opportunities for professionals fromlaw schools and civil society organizations towork together on research on legal practiceand reform. To ensure that research is robust,sharply-focused, and able to provide usefulinputs to policy, the Foundation is support-ing researchers from law schools and civilsociety to undertake advanced researchmethodology and writing skills training.Following a competitive selection process,the E2J program is providing grants for col-laborative research on issues including crimi-nal law, anti-corruption law, environmentallaw, and women’s and children’s rights. Theprojects draw on the lecturers for theoreticaland intellectual aspects of the law, while civilsociety representatives are able to lend theirfield experience and knowledge of the practi-cal aspects of application of the law. To
further enhance the research process, theFoundation is drawing on its network ofregional and international law schools, legalresearch institutions and civil society organi-zations, facilitating new connections andproviding opportunities for research collaboration.
STRENGTHENING LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS
Civil society organizations have played a critical role in justice sector reform during the reformasi era. And the Foundation has been attheir side during this process, supporting themin their efforts. The E2J program seeks toextend this collaboration, working to strength-en the capacity of civil society organizations tosupport, monitor, and advocate for justicereform. The Foundation is providing trainingand technical support for organizations toenhance their financial management capacity,strategic planning skills and internal standardoperating procedures. And in addition to sup-porting civil society organizations to conductresearch, E2J is assisting them to disseminateand utilize research results in a manner thatadvances a better, fairer justice system based ondemocratic ideals and the sanctity of individualrights and freedoms.
SUPPORTING EMERGING LEADERS
The program also provides financial support fora number of law lecturers and promising civilsociety organization staff to pursue graduatestudies at the Asian Law Center of theUniversity of Washington Law School. Ongraduation, these emerging leaders will returnto further hone the development of the clinicalprograms and play an active role in shaping thenext generation of reformers.
For additional information on the E2J program, please contact Chief of PartyEric Putzig ([email protected]).
The Asia Foundation’s E2J program is made possible by the generous supportof the American people through the United States Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID).
12/2012
The Asia Foundation
is a nonprofit international
development organization
committed to improving
lives across a dynamic
and developing Asia.
Headquartered in San
Francisco, The Asia
Foundation works through
a network of offices in
17 Asian countries and in
Washington, DC. Working
with public and private
partners, the Foundation
receives funding from
a diverse group of
bilateral and multilateral
development agencies,
foundations, corporations,
and individuals.