The Alternative Dispute Resolution Introduced by Dominican Republic and Central America Free Trade Agreement

Abstract

Juan José Cifuentes focuses on the impact upon local legal cultures - Guatemala and Carribbean Basi- of the Free Trade Agreements inspired on neo-liberal ideology. In order to create a national space that fits the requirements  of international organizations and transnational corporations, local governments adopt legal knowledge and transplants legal and political institutions to ensure the smooth flux of capital. In particular, Cifuentes focuses on the judicial reform programs that seek to implement mechanisms known as Alternative Dispute Resolution, asking if these programs are aimed to improve access to justice for traditionally disadvantaged groups rather than fuelling a reform based on a particular notion of development. He arrives to the conclusion that such reforms, and specially the institutions included in alternative dispute resolution systems, work as instruments of the economic hegemony.