Some Means of Addressing Judicial Corruption in Mongolia

The focus of the Mongolia Judicial Reform Project (JRP) is judicial reform. Therefore this paper focuses only on judicial corruption, however it is difficult to separate the corruption of judges from other corruption in the wider justice sector (police, prosecutors, bailiffs who enforce judgments, etc.), since they all frustrate the goal of achieving the Rule of Law. Corruption in the Justice sector is a keystone to corruption throughout society. Without an honest criminal justice system, the wealthy, including the corrupt, can avoid the consequences of their crimes. Such impunity reduces the perceived cost of corruption. The risk that corrupt activity will result in imprisonment and accompanying public humiliation is minimal. The gains from corruption are thus not discounted and there is little reason beyond personal integrity not to engage in corrupt acts.