PERU Country Profile

Judicial System

Individual Corruption

The judiciary is the public institution most distrusted by Peruvians. In the Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer 2007, the judiciary is perceived as the most corrupt institution in the country. User surveys indicate that unofficial payments affect both the speed and the final outcome of judicial processes.

Business Corruption

The judicial system is perceived to be unfair and untrustworthy by many foreign companies, and managers report that bribes are widely used to facilitate judicial proceedings.

Foreign investors have found that contracts are often difficult to enforce because the judicial system is very slow to hear cases and to issue decisions regarding property rights. Outcomes have been difficult to predict and enforce, and judicial corruption is allegedly frequent. Foreign investors often resort to arbitration to resolve business disputes, thus avoiding time-consuming judicial procedures.

Political Corruption

The Peruvian judiciary inherited a legacy from the Fujimori era of a discredited reputation and vulnerability to political and economic influences. During his presidency, Fujimori removed 70% of the judges and, according to Freedom House 2008, filled the open positions with appointees on a 'provisional basis' - meaning that they lacked experience and were effectively beholden to the government. The number of judges affiliated with the government in such a way has since declined from 70% to 30% in 2006, but the presence of corrupt judges remains a serious problem. Throughout 2006, more than 100 judges who were previously suspended due to suspicion of corruption or incompetence were reinstated.

According to the Bertelsmann Foundation 2008, reforms intended to strengthen the independence of the judiciary have been unsuccessful, due mainly to a lack of consensus-building between policymakers. The entities that have shown the most independence from political influence are the Constitutional Court and the Ombudsman's Office.

Frequency

The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2009:
- Enforcing a commercial contract in Peru requires a company to go through an average of 41 administrative procedures, taking an average of 468 days and costing an average of 35.7% of the claim.

- The equivalent average numbers for OECD countries are 31 procedures, 463 days and 19% of the claim.

Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009:
- Citizens give the judiciary a score of 4.4 on a 5-point scale (1 being 'not at all corrupt' and 5 'extremely corrupt').

World Economic Forum: The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009:
- Business leaders give the Peru's judiciary a score of 2.7 on a 7-point scale in relation to the judiciary's independence from political influence of members of government, citizens, or companies (1 being 'heavily influenced' and 7 'entirely independent').

Latinobarómetro: Annual Report 2008 (see English version):
- 47% of respondents in this public opinion survey believe that it is possible to bribe a judge in order to get a favourable sentence.

Miller & Chevalier: Latin America Corruption Survey 2008:
- 90% of the business managers surveyed perceive the judiciary to be significantly corrupt.

Proetica: Quinta Encuesta Nacional de Corrupción 2008 (in Spanish):
- 81% of the households surveyed perceive the judiciary system to be 'corrupt' or 'very corrupt'.

- 65% of users of the courts report that processes within the judicial system (e.g. trial, extension of licences and permits, etc) are faster when a bribe is paid to the judicial personnel.