ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses primarily on material obtained from legal officials; interviews with and observations of lawyers and litigants are only used as background. In their strategy of 'good governance' and to make the Congo a 'state of law', foreign donors have attached crucial importance to the reform of the judicial system. All judges start their career with a legal internship of two to three years as deputy public prosecutors. At the end of their internship, magistrates are likely to be transferred to a justice of the peace court or another prosecutor's office. Inspired by the sociology of organizations, the approach in terms of zones of uncertainty allows for placing corrupt practices, social strategies and the pluralism of norms in a more dynamic perspective, in the light of the power games of public officials. The strategy for reforming courts cannot be limited to the research of practical norms most favourable to development outcomes.
