Adaptation, Compensation and Imposition: Paradigms for Purging the Bosnian Judiciary.

Just as the international community was late in discovering the significance of the judiciary for the success of peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina, international agencies were also late in identifying corruption as a key reason why the Bosnian judicial agencies were not working. The steps taken eventually to address the situation, including introducing reformed judicial admission, discipline and dismissal regimes, were not strategic, but reactive in nature. Notably, the international community initially adhered to the idea that these reforms should be domestically 'owned' and 'led', and that the resulting laws should resonate well with pre-existing legal-cultural paradigms; but as this process did not produce the desired results, the Office of the High Representative and the Independent Judicial Commission chose gradually to increase their involvement, eventually assuming almost complete control over the process. The process culminated in the firing of almost the entire Bosnian judiciary and the imposition of an internationalized structure for judicial appointments and dismissals. Although this policy stood in stark contrast to the values of local ownership and local leadership, it has essentially produced positive long-term results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]