{"type":"script","doc_desc":{"producers":[{"name":"Reproducibility WBG","abbr":"DECDI","affiliation":"World Bank - Development Impact Department","role":"Verification and preparation of metadata"}],"prod_date":"2026-02-11","version":"1"},"project_desc":{"authoring_entity":[{"name":"Erica Bosio","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"ebosio@worldbank.org"}],"title_statement":{"title":"Reproducibility package for The Path Forward To Effective Reform: A Global Report On Justice","idno":"RR_WLD_2025_513"},"software":[{"name":"Stata","version":"19.5 MP"},{"name":"Excel"}],"scripts":[{"title":"Reproducibility package for The Path Forward To Effective Reform: A Global Report On Justice","date":"2026-02","notes":"Computational reproducibility verified by Development Impact (DECDI) Analytics team, World Bank.","instructions":"See README in reproducibility package.","file_name":"RR_WLD_2025_513","zip_package":"RR_WLD_2025_513.zip","dependencies":"Stata dependencies are listed in the ado folder."}],"repository_uri":[{"name":"Reproducible Research Repository (World Bank)","uri":"https:\/\/reproducibility.worldbank.org"}],"production_date":"2026-02-11","abstract":"This report introduces the Database of Court Reform, a global repository documenting 1,887 attempted court reforms across 189 countries from 2000\u20132025, yielding over 15,000 data points. Designed as an operational tool for the World Bank Group and other development partners, the database consolidates detailed information on reform content and sequencing, enabling practitioners to benchmark national reform trajectories against global and regional peers, identify common strategies to improve access, efficiency, and quality, and tailor interventions to institutional contexts.\nThe report\u2019s main contribution is an empirical analysis of court reform processes and the actionable policy recommendations derived from this evidence. It addresses longstanding gaps\u2014fragmented information, political resistance, and resource constraints\u2014by offering a systematic, cross-country view of who reforms, what they target, and when reforms enter into force. The database records key features of each attempted reform (including precipitating events, political actors, timing, and scope) and focuses on whether reforms were approved and entered into force, without assessing implementation or outcomes. This unified evidence base supports the design of politically feasible and technically sound reform strategies.\nAdditionally, the report presents a novel cross-country dataset on judicial selection to courts of last instance as a proxy for judicial independence. By documenting nominating and appointing authorities and the number of branches involved, it reveals salient variation in executive, legislative, and judicial influence with implications for the independence of top courts.","geographic_units":[{"name":"World","code":"WLD"}],"keywords":[{"name":"Justice"},{"name":"Reform"},{"name":"Judiciary"},{"name":"Courts"},{"name":"Independence"},{"name":"Judges"}],"output":[{"type":"Working Paper","description":"Policy Research Working Papers (PRWP)","title":"The Path Forward To Effective Reform: A Global Report On Justice"}],"language":[{"name":"English","code":"EN"}],"technology_requirements":"~2 minutes runtime.","disclaimer":"The materials in the reproducibility packages are distributed as they were prepared by the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development\/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this event do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the materials included in the reproducibility package.","license":[{"name":"Modified BSD3","uri":"https:\/\/opensource.org\/license\/bsd-3-clause\/"}],"contacts":[{"name":"Erica Bosio","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"ebosio@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Reproducibility WBG","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"reproducibility@worldbank.org"}],"technology_environment":"Paper exhibits were reproduced on a computer with the following specifications:\n\u2022 OS: Windows 11 Enterprise\n\u2022 Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 165U @ 2.60GHz\n\u2022 Memory available: 17 GB","datasets":[{"name":"Database of Court Reform ","note":"Data file: Database of Court Reform_DR.xlsx.\nThe data set was constructed by the authors and will be deposited in Development Data Hub.","access_type":"Data is temporarily embargoed by the authors (expected to be made public in the future). ","citation":"World Bank. (2026). \"Database of Court Reform [Data set].\" World Bank. "},{"name":"Database on Judicial Independence ","note":"Data file: Database on Judicial Independence_DR_For Reproducibility Verification.xlsx\nThe data set was constructed by the authors and will be deposited in Development Data Hub.","access_type":"Data is temporarily embargoed by the authors (expected to be made public in the future). ","citation":"World Bank. (2026). \"Database on Judicial Independence [Data set].\" World Bank. "},{"name":"World Development Indicators (WDI) ","note":"Variables: GDP per capita, Human Capital Index (HCI), GDP growth (annual %). \nData files: GDP_per_capita_2000_2024.xlsx, P_HCI.xlsx, P_Growth.xlsx","access_type":"Publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","license":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","license_uri":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/","uri":"https:\/\/data.worldbank.org\/indicator\/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD","citation":"World Bank. (n.d.). \"World Development Indicators\" [Data set]. Indicators accessed: GDP per capita, Human Capital Index (HCI), GDP growth (annual %). Available at https:\/\/databank.worldbank.org\/source\/world-development-indicators. Accessed in August 2025, December 2024, January 2026."},{"name":"World Bank Country and Region Classifications ","note":"Data files: CLASS_2025_10_07.xlsx;\nOGHIST_2025_10_07.xlsx","license":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","access_type":"Publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","license_uri":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/","citation":"World Bank. 2026. \"World Bank country and lending groups\" [Data set]. World Bank. Available at https:\/\/datahelpdesk.worldbank.org\/knowledgebase\/articles\/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups. Accessed in January 2026.","uri":"https:\/\/datahelpdesk.worldbank.org\/knowledgebase\/articles\/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups"},{"name":"Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Dataset","uri":"https:\/\/v-dem.net\/data\/the-v-dem-dataset\/country-year-v-dem-core-v15\/","citation":"Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jan Teorell, David Altman, Fabio Angiolillo, Michael Bernhard, Agnes Cornell, M. Steven Fish, Linnea Fox, Lisa Gastaldi, Haakon Gjerl\u00f8w, Adam Glynn, Ana Good God, Sandra Grahn, Allen Hicken, Katrin Kinzelbach, Joshua Krusell, Kyle L. Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Valeriya Mechkova, Juraj Medzihorsky, Natalia Natsika, Anja Neundorf, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Johannes von R\u00f6mer, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jeffrey Staton, Aksel Sundstr\u00f6m, Marcus Tannenberg, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Felix Wiebrecht, Tore Wig, Steven Wilson and Daniel Ziblatt. 2025. \"V-Dem [Country-Year] Dataset v15\" Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. Available at https:\/\/v-dem.net\/data\/the-v-dem-dataset\/country-year-v-dem-core-v15\/. Accessed in March 2025.","note":"Data file: V-Dem-CY-Core-v15.dta","access_type":"Publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","license":"Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA)","license_uri":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/"},{"uri":"https:\/\/worldjusticeproject.org\/rule-of-law-index\/","name":"World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index","citation":"World Justice Project. 2025. \"WJP Rule of Law Index 2025\" [Data set]. World Justice Project. Available at https:\/\/worldjusticeproject.org\/rule-of-law-index\/. Accessed in June 2025.","access_type":"Publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","note":"Data file: WJP-ROL.xlsx"},{"name":"Polity5 Dataset - Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800-2018","citation":"Marshall, M. G., Gurr, T. R., & Jaggers, K. (2020). \"Polity5: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800\u20132018\" [Data set]. Center for Systemic Peace. Available at http:\/\/www.systemicpeace.org. Accessed in April 2025.","access_type":"Publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","note":"Data file: p5v2018.xls.","uri":"https:\/\/www.systemicpeace.org\/inscrdata.html"},{"name":"EIU Democracy Index ","uri":"https:\/\/data360.worldbank.org\/en\/int\/indicator\/EIU_DI_INDEX","access_type":"Publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","citation":"Economist Intelligence Unit, Our World in Data. 2025. \"Democracy Index\" [Data set]. Data 360. Available at https:\/\/data360.worldbank.org\/en\/int\/indicator\/EIU_DI_INDEX. Accessed in March 2025. ","license":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","license_uri":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/","note":"Data file: EIU-DI.xlsx."},{"name":"Afrobarometer Merged Data (Round 9)","note":"Data file: R9.Merge_39ctry.20Nov23.final.release_Updated.25Oct24 2 2.sav.","access_type":"Publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","citation":"Afrobarometer Data. 2023. \"Merged Round 9 (39 Countries), 2023\" [Dataset]. Available at https:\/\/www.afrobarometer.org\/data\/merged-data\/. Accessed in June 2025.","uri":"https:\/\/www.afrobarometer.org\/data\/merged-data\/"}],"contributors":[{"name":"Bettina Eugenia Lefeld","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"blefeld@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Sayed Madadi","email":"smadadi@worldbank.org","affiliation":"World Bank"},{"name":"Manuel Ramos Maqueda","email":"mramosmaqueda@worldbank.org","affiliation":"World Bank"},{"name":"Per Norlund","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"pnorlund@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Meng Su","email":"M.Su4@lse.ac.uk","affiliation":"LSE"},{"name":"Virginia Upegui Caro","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"vupeguicaro@worldbank.org"}],"reproduction_instructions":"To reproduce the findings in this study, please follow the steps below:\n1. Obtain the forthcoming datasets and place them in \/Data\/Raw.\n2. Change the main directory to your local setup. \n3. Run the code.","data_statement":"Some data is temporarily embargoed by the authors and expected to be made public in the future. Therefore not included in the reproducibility package. ","identifiers":[{"type":"doi","identifier":"10.60572\/1dpv-h387"}]},"tags":[{"tag":"DOI"},{"tag":"Open Code"}],"schematype":"script"}