ABSTRACT
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. 1 An audit of this sector (Mission conjointe multibailleurs 2004) was commissioned in 2004 and concluded that there had been a ‘total collapse’ of the judicial system: submission to the executive, corruption at all levels, wrongful arrests, low enforcement rates and so on (for a brief history of the Congolese judicial system, see Rubbers and Gallez 2012). In accordance with the recommendations of this report, the J. Kabila government, elected in 2006, adopted a new constitution, new legal codes and a plan to restructure the judiciary (see Ministère de la Justice 2007, 2009). Particularly noteworthy are the introduction of a Conseil Supérieur de la Magistrature, responsible for determining the conditions for recruiting and promoting judges; the gradual replacement of tribunaux coutumiers (customary courts), which cover most of the country, with tribunaux de paix (justice of the peace courts); the recruitment of new magistrates and better pay.
