Almost a decade after Liberia’s second civil war many institutions within the country are still broken. The education, judicial, and legislative systems are all light years behind any westernized nation and are in dire need of repair. Although there are countless glaring issues in the country, one that particularly stands out is the average Liberian’s ability to access the justice system. The issue of ‘Access to Justice’ has been noticed by organizations such as the Carter Center and USAID. Both of these organizations have put forth great effort to identify what is causing this issue and what needs to be done to fix it. An area of the ‘Access to Justice’ issue that must be addressed is the relationship between the informal and formal legal systems in Liberia. This relationship is complicated and has even led to some Liberian citizens not receiving justice.
Liberia’s formal judicial system consists of several levels of courts. The highest level is the Supreme Court. This court has both appellate and original jurisdiction over cases that raise constitutional issues. The magistrate courts are at the lowest level. These courts deal with misdemeanor crimes and have preliminary jurisdiction. An issue with these courts is that they may only try cases that involve less than 50 dollars in damages. The level in between these two and perhaps the most disputed are the country’s Circuit Courts. Although all the court levels in Liberia have issues the Circuit Courts are certainly suffering the most. Unfortunately, these courts have become overwhelmed with cases and have become inefficient. Since the Magistrate Courts have such a limited jurisdiction, they have been forced to send up many cases to the higher level. This combined with slow jury selection processes and other factors has essentially clogged the Circuit Court dockets. The court’s inability to complete trials in a timely manner is a reason behind why many Liberians, especially in rural areas, distrust the formal legal system.
Many issues with the formal system have made it unfavorable in the eyes of Liberians. In rural areas, formal courts are often too far away to walk to and complainants cannot afford to get transportation there. Even if they are able to afford the transportation, it is unlikely that they would then be able to afford the court fees and fees for an attorney. This then brings to light another issue within the Liberian judicial system, the access to public defenders. There are only twenty-four public defenders within the whole country. This has made it extremely difficult for everyone who needs a public defender to have access to one, even though it is a right guaranteed in the constitution. Many times Liberians involved in legal disputes end up solving the issue on their own, between their families, or turn to the informal system. The informal system is seen as simpler, easier to access, and cheaper than its counterpart.
How the informal system operates is community dependent. However, a community or tribal chief is almost always the head that makes the final in the guilt or innocence of a defendant. This system is much more affordable for community members; there are no fees or transportation involved. Communities often have their own system of rules, regulations, and punishments in place that are well known to the people of the community. Although, the informal system seems promising it also has its own share of failures and shortcomings. Many of the customs and traditions within the informal system are considered to beout-of-date and almost barbaric. A portion of the informal system that the Liberian government and NGOs are attempting to combat is ‘Sassy wood’. Also known as Trial By Ordeal, these “trials” often consist of a chief making the defendant drink some kind of poisonous concoction; if the defendant lives then his innocence is proven. Trial by Ordeal does not guarantee justice for either the defendant or the complainant
There have also been many issueswith the western beliefs and values of the formal system clashing with the traditional beliefs of the informal systems. For instance, land inheritance and rape laws were a constant issue for the informal system and led to women and girls in rural areas having their legal rights violated. For example, in some of the communities’ cultures it is not morally wrong for a young girl to lose her virginity to a much older man. It is beliefs like this that must be altered in order to protect the rights of the child. Legally, Liberia’s government has attempted to catch up in areas like this. The 2006 Rape Law and the country’s recognition of statutory rape have been instituted and have helped citizens to see the reasoning behind these new beliefs. Unfortunately, the laws have not necessarily had a huge impact on outlying communities. As a result of lack of access to information, many citizens are ill informed of the laws and continue to act on their beliefs. This has also led to community leaders using outdated methods to issue out punishments and remedy issues.
There has been some effort to help develop the informal system. The Carter Center and USAID haverun programs to help educate village chiefs, women leaders, and the youth on the formal Liberian laws and the government in general. Educating these people helps to disseminate information to the villages and small communities. In an ideal world, these centers would be able to donate resources, like computers or even hard copies of laws, to villages so people could stay up to date on the laws and news. However until the country’s infrastructure and education improves that is not a viable option.
Every aspect of Liberia’s internal affairs still needs improvement. By improving both the informal and formal aspects of the country’s legal system individually and increasing the harmonization between the two systems, the country would better be able to serve its people and provide justice. Although efforts can be made to ease the pain of the current system, large improvement will most likely not be made until Liberia as a whole gets back on track to modernization.