About ISDLS

Since 1982, ISDLS has promoted worldwide legal modernization through the facilitation of reform initiatives. ISDLS collaborates with foreign governments and legal professionals to design and implement structural reforms resulting in increased access to justice, transparent and efficient legal processes, and converging international standards of dispute resolution and conflict management. ISDLS has addressed a broad range of legal issues including civil and criminal justice procedures, intellectual property rights, judicial corruption and rule of law topics in countries throughout the world.

The Institute for the Study and Development of Legal Systems (ISDLS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that conducts international legal reform and exchange projects in collaboration with foreign governments and legal professionals. ISDLS is comprised of over eighty leading legal professionals in the state of California, including federal and state judges, prosecutors and public defenders; private and city attorneys; court administrators; private and court-appointed mediators and arbitrators; law professors; directors of judicial education and performance centers and committees; directors of law enforcement oversight bodies; law enforcement officers and trainers; journalists and others.

The collective expertise and the working methodology of ISDLS have been refined through many successful legal studies. The four foundational principles of our techniques have developed through the lens of the shifting global paradigms of the last two decades.

Collaboration is the cornerstone of all ISDLS projects. In every project, we provide resources including education, consulting and training to the governments and legal professionals in the host country, enabling them to design and implement reforms themselves. ISDLS acts as a consultant to the government and legal study groups, offering expertise in specific legal issues and in the process of legal modernization and development.

Awareness of the local political, cultural and economic structures and their effect on legal modernization is integral to all ISDLS projects. There are a variety of aspects to this awareness, including an understanding of the social and cultural mores in the host country, as well as the pre-existing legal system and political situation; the ability to look at the commonalities between various legal systems, while still considering the individual needs and problems of each country; and knowledge of innovations in dispute resolution and mediation systems.

Through collaboration, awareness and a systemic approach to reform projects, ISDLS provides a knowledge base and mechanism for adaptable reform. ISDLS reform projects expand the existing and indigenous legal systems to meet current needs by adapting principles of dispute resolution and conflict managements. ISDLS assists in tailoring these mechanisms for compatibility and acceptability within each individual legal culture.

ISDLS employs a functional and systemic approach as the mechanism for developing and implementing reforms:

1. Assessment. First, an ISDLS team works in the host country to assess the processes, needs and potential solutions of the host country legal system, and to establish a host country legal study group responsible for spearheading the local reform effort.

2. Observation. The study group then observes a wide variety of mechanisms selected by the assessment team as potentially applicable, selects the mechanisms best suited to meet their legal needs and culture, and works in collaboration with ISDLS to design an adaptable model of the selected mechanisms.

3. Demonstration. Next, an ISDLS team and the study group demonstrate and discuss the selected mechanisms and their proposed adaptation to a broad audience of legal professionals in the host country. ISDLS and the study team carefully design a pilot project with the type of case, participants and size determined to produce the optimally successful results.

4. Implementation. Finally, the pilot project is implemented, usually with training assistance from ISDLS. The pilot is carefully monitored and revised, if necessary, to ensure its success, which engenders its acceptance and eventual expansion.