Legal Infrastructure and Governance Reform in Post‐Crisis Asia: The case of Indonesia

Abstract

This article reflects on problems encountered in implementing legal infrastructure reform in the light of current theory and recent, post‐crisis experience in East Asia. Indonesia's experience of radical legal infrastructure reform in the six years since the crisis began has been both extensive and troubled. It is therefore a compelling case study of whether the new paradigm of Post‐Washington Consensus Governance reform has delivered the kind of legal institutional changes that its proponents believe might have prevented the crisis. The article begins with an examination of the Governance paradigm rationale for legal infrastructure reform before surveying the Indonesian experience. It concludes with a critique of Governance reform practices and suggest some ‘lessons learned’ for future legal infrastructure reform, drawn from the Indonesia case study. It argues that the Governance paradigm promotes overly simplistic approaches to the complex and political project of legal infrastructure reform in developing states.