DOING BUSINESS 2009 - JOHN J. HADDAD, Ph.D.

ENFORCING CONTRACTS 53experts will be questioned. Under thenew rules the judge must issue a writtenjudgment within 15 days after the secondhearing.While oral proceedings are a recenttrend in Latin America, countriesin other regions have a longer historywith them. Take Luxembourg, whichranks second on the ease of enforcingcontracts. There, parties do not exchangelong, written pleadings in commercialcases. Instead, they exchange only thewritten evidence they intend to rely onduring oral arguments before the judge.This saves several months.Imposing strict deadlinesIn 1995 the “arbitrazh courts” becameresponsible for dealing with commercialdisputes in the Russian Federation. In2002, to make proceedings faster, theRussian Federation revised its commercialprocedural code. Its most significantinnovation was to introduce strictmandatory time limits: 2 months fora full hearing, 1 month for acceleratedprocedures.Most Central Asian countries copiedthe Russian procedural rules, includingthe strict deadlines. Judges are heldaccountable for respecting the deadlines,with those who do best standing betterchances for promotion. Not surprisingly,of the 10 economies with the fastest averagetimes to enforce a contract, half arein Eastern Europe and Central Asia.Notes1. Wojkowska (2006).2. Safavian and Sharma (2007).3. Dabla-Norris, Gradstein and Inchauste(2008).4. World Bank Enterprise Surveys (http://www.enterprisesurveys.org).(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank