In Iraq, Lawyers No Laughing Matter

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October 18, 2007 1:27 PM

While violence and energy shortages in Iraq hamper reconstruction efforts, the biggest challenge may be the lack of a functioning justice system, according to a new report.

Lawyers are poorly trained, judges are routinely intimidated and bribed, and Iraqis view police with suspicion, according to the report by Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen. When courts issue orders, they are "routinely ignored."

U.S. advisors working with Iraqi officials to rebuild the country told Bowen that rule of law was "their most problematic core function," he reported.

Bowen noted optimistically that in one region, "polling...showed public confidence in the judicial system increasing from 6% to 25%."

U.S. advisors working with Iraqi justice officials told Bowen's investigators that Iraqi judges and lawyers want training on "up-to-date legal concepts in such areas as due process and human rights."

In many areas, local militia groups and religious leaders resolve Iraqis' disputes, Bowen found, which undercuts the government's authority to administer justice.

Bowen blamed Saddam Hussein for "more than 30 years of neglect" that left the country without the kinds of legal education, research and professional associations needed to support a functioning legal system.

He had sharp words for U.S. authorities as well.

"If the story of Iraq reconstruction tells anything, teaches any lesson, it is that the U.S. government was not well-structured and was not well-poised in 2003 to engage in the kind of post-conflict relief and reconstruction operations we have faced," he told a congressional panel Thursday.

In his report, a review of U.S. advisors' progress fostering Iraqi self-government, Bowen concluded that bringing the country to self-reliance would take "years of steady engagement."

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