Legal and Institutional Reform
Legal Areas Where USAID is Active
1. General Commercial Law Framework: This is a catch-all heading
that includes (i) legal reform of the most fundamental kind
(e.g., countries undergoing substantial economic transformation,
as was the case with Hungary, Russia, and Serbia), (ii) revision
of national constitutions, commercial codes, and contract law,
(iii) omnibus commercial law projects, and (iv) crosscutting
initiatives that cannot be pinned to a specific category (e.g.,
information technology and e-commerce).
2. Business Environment: This category deals with business
entry and exit (company law and bankruptcy), accounting rules,
corporate governance, employment laws (including labor and
pension benefits) and tax laws.
3. Financial Services: This category deals with laws relating
to business finance, capital markets, and insurance.
4. Trade & Investment: This category deals with foreign
direct investment, WTO accession and compliance, customs
rules, public procurement, anti-trust laws and consumer protection,
competitiveness, and foreign exchange rules.
5. Commercial Dispute Resolution: This heading covers adjudication
mechanisms for commercial disputes and enforcement mechanisms,
including judicial training, court administration, docket
control, arbitration, mediation, and training for bailiffs
and marshals.
6. Institutional Reform: This covers programs that address
the way government bodies and their personnel, as well as
other organizations (including NGOs), are organized and how
they function. Typically, institutional reform projects will
attempt to make institutions more transparent, accountable,
efficient, transparent, or effective. They could also make
them less corrupt.
7. Property Rights: This heading pertains to laws establishing
and defining all forms of property, the registration of such
property, and the collateralization or mortgaging of such
property. Among the types of property encompassed are personal
(or moveable) property, intellectual property, and real property.
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