Evaluation Summary
1. Outline of the Project• Country: Kingdom of Cambodia• Project Title: Legal and Judicial Cooperation Project (Phase II)• Issue/Sector: Legal and judicial development• Cooperation Scheme: Technical Cooperation Project• Division in Charge: Social System & Peace Building Team, Group I, Social
Development Department• Total Cost (at the time of evaluation): 140,376,000 yen• Period of Cooperation:(Date of R/D signed): 9 April 2004
3 years (9 April 2004 - 8 April 2007)• Partner Country’s Implementing Organization(s): Ministry of Justice (MOJ); Councilof Legal and Judicial Reform• Supporting Organization(s) in Japan: Ministry of Justice; Supreme Court; Japan
Federation of Bar Associations• Related Cooperation: Project for Improvement of Training on Civil Matters at theRoyal School for Judges and Prosecutors of the Royal Academy for Judicial Professions

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Background to the Project

Following the end of the civil war in 1991, Cambodia placed the highest priority on
legal development and judicial reform for establishing the rule of law on the national
agenda. However, the national legal system, including basic laws, remained inadequate.
In addition, judicial experts and the related officials were insufficient and incompetent
to manage legal and judicial development.
In response to the request from the government of Cambodia for assistance, JICA
launched the Legal and Judicial Development Project in March 1999. This project
aimed to support the Government of Cambodia in drafting the Civil Code and the Codeof Civil Procedures, developing law implementing procedures and improving judicial
institutions, seeking to develop the legal framework that would accomodate thecountry’s transition to a market economy. Due to delay in the drafting process by aJapan-Cambodia joint working group for drafting, the project period was extended forone year. The project was completed by handing over the final draft Codes to the
Ministry of Justice (MOJ). in March 2003.
In 2003, the Government of Cambodia requested the Government of Japan to extend thefurther co-operation in establishing the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedures andthe laws and regulations which were related to the two Codes. In response to thisrequest, the Phase II of the Legal and Judicial Cooperation Project was launched in
April 2004 by signing and exchanging the Record of Discussions (R/D).

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Project Overview(1) Overall Goal
Laws and regulations with respect to civil affairs and their applications are reliable anduseful for Cambodian people.
(2) Project Purpose
Conditions for promoting legislation of the Civil Code and the Code of Civil Procedure
are prepared.
(3) Outputs
1) Knowledge and capacity of the personnel involved in the various stages of legislation,in addition to the Members of the Defending Committee of the Codes in MOJ, areenhanced enough to manage and advance the legislation process appropriately.
2) Level of understanding of legal and judicial experts in Cambodia with respect totechnical details of the Codes is improved.
3) Draft provisions of transitional measures, etc., regarding application of the Code ofCivil Procedure are prepared.
4) Draft provisions of transitional measures, etc., regarding application of the Civil
Code, and draft laws and bylaws to enforce the Civil Code are prepared.
5) Draft laws related to the Code of Civil Procedure are prepared.
6) Draft laws related to the Civil Code are prepared.

(4) Inputs (until the time of evaluation)
Japan: 118,834,000 yen in total• Long-term Experts: 2 experts(One expert for about nine months between 8 April 2004 and 3 January 2005)• Short-term Experts: 4 experts• Trainees received: 14 persons• Equipment: Personal computers, printers, and other official automation equipment• Local activity expenses: 26,592,000 yen
Cambodia:• Counterparts: 12 persons in the Committee of the Civil Code and Civil Procedure
Code (in which two counterparts in the Project for Improvement of Training on Civil
Matters at the Royal School for Judges and Prosecutors of the Royal Academy for
Judicial Professions also participated)• Supporting staff: 2 persons (MOJ officials)• Offices and places for meetings• Electric utility expenses for the offices

2. Evaluation Team
Team Members
Team Leader: Kyoko KUWAJIMA, Director, Group I, Social Development Department,
JICA
Aid Approaches to Legal System Development: Kazuo INABA, Director, International
Cooperation Department, Research and Training Institute, Ministry of Justice
Aid Approaches to Legal and Judicial Development: Naoshi SATO, JICA Senior
AdvisorPlanning Evaluation: Ken INOUE, Social System & Peace Building Team, Group I,Social Development Department, JICA
Evaluation Analysis: Fumio ITO, CDC International

Interpreter: Leng SVEY, Japan International Cooperation Center
Observer: Hidetaka NISHIBAYASHI, Administrative Staff, International Cooperation
Department, Research and Training Institute, Ministry of Justice
Period of Evaluation:
18 - 28 October 2006
Type of Evaluation:
Terminal Evaluation
3. Results of Evaluation
3-1 Achievement Level(1) Project Performance1) Achievement of the Project Purpose
The purpose of the project has been generally achieved. Conditions were established for
promoting the legislation of the Civil Code and the Code of Civil Procedure, which wasagreed in the R/D and the Minutes of the Meeting (M/M) in 2004 and also referred to in
the PDM. The legislation of the two Codes was given a high priority in the policies of
the Government of Cambodia: it was placed as a priority issue in the “National Strategic
Development Plan (NSDP) for 2006-2010” which was adopted in June 2006. In theprocess of deliberating on the Codes, the Committee of the Civil Code and Civil
Procedure Code (hereinafter referred to as “the Committee”) has provided a series of
explanations on this matter with the members of the Council of Jurists of the Council of
Ministers, Inter-Ministerial Meeting, the National Assembly, and the Senate andappropriately responded to the questions from them. This helped them to have deeper
understanding of the Codes and created cooperative environment for the legislation. As
a result, the Code of Civil Procedure was enacted in July 2006 and legislation of the
Civil Code was in progress: the Inter-Ministerial Meeting completed deliberating on the
Civil Code in September 2006.
2) Achievement of the Outputs

The members of the Committee have comprehended and acquired knowledge on theCodes and extended their capacity through such activities as (i) studying the Codes
through training in Japan and seminars in Cambodia; (ii) acquiring knowledge on therelated laws/regulations; (iii) establishing terminology to work for the Codes; (iv)managing the process of deliberating on the Codes, such as providing explanations to
the officers of the related ministries as necessary; and (v) ensuring consistency between
the draft Codes and related laws being drafted by other ministries [Output 1]. The
Committee has compiled a lexicon and a manual on the first instance procedure, laying
the groundwork for developing teaching materials for disseminating the Codes in the
future [Output 2]. Progress has been made in the process of drafting the related
laws/regulations and transitional provisions for the Civil Code and the Code of Civil
Procedure [Outputs 3, 4, 5].
On the other hand, as other ministries were drafting the land law, the commercial court
law and other laws with assistance from other donors, more efforts than what had been
initially expected was needed to secure consistency between these laws and the two
Codes, posing a heavy burden on the project stakeholders, including the members of theCommittee and the working groups in Japan, and JICA long-term experts. Due to this,progress of the Project was behind the schedule in some aspects, which hindered some
Outputs from being achieved. As for the Output 2, for example, the seminar activities tohelp judges, prosecutors and lawyers to have better understanding of the new Codes
have not been conducted as planned. The project to annotate each article of the Civil
Code was still in progress, even though the completed set of annotations was animportant means for disseminating the Code. Publication of Khmer version of theannotations on the Code of Civil Procedure had to be waited until the early 2008 As
per of the status of the textbooks, which were important to conduct dissemination
activities, even though they were scheduled to be completed within the project period,
the textbook on the Civil Code has started only recently, while Khmer version of the
textbook on the Code of Civil Procedure would not be published until the first half of2007. As for Output 6, as the drafting process has not yet started for some parts of therelated laws/regulations for the Civil Code, it was assumed to be difficult to complete
the draft Code to establish the Code by the completion of the Project.
Due to the delays on the works mentioned, which made the Outputs and the Project
Purpose difficult to be completely achieved by March 2007, the scheduled date ofcompletion of the Project, it was assumed to be necessary to extend the Project term forone year, especially to complete the activities for the Output 2, that were designed forlegal and judicial experts to increase their understanding and knowledge of the Civil
Code and the Code of Civil Procedure. It was also necessary to take measures tocomplete the activities concerning the Output 6 (drafting the related laws andregulations). However, as the Evaluation Team could not review the Activity Plan indetail, it is suggested that both Japan and Cambodia sides should have an opportunity toreview this matter.

(2) Implementation Process
1) Project Management Structure(i) Japan’s Management Structure
Two working groups on the Civil Code and the Code of Civil Procedure were organizedin Japan. They held a monthly meeting to analyze the current situation and discuss thecourse of action. However, since the working groups were comprised of busy
practitioners and researchers whose participation was voluntary, their activities tended
to be delayed in some aspects. A liaison council for work supervision set up a forum
where the Japanese project stakeholders shared information and made decisions. This
council could not meet quarterly as initially scheduled for various reasons, which madethe council impossible to conduct the duties as planned..
On the other hand, liaison and coordination were appropriate between JICA long-term
expert in Cambodia, JICA Cambodia Office and JICA Headquarters. The International
Civil and Commercial Law Centre Foundation, which was the Japan’s Secretariat
Office of the Project, conducted appropriate work management.
For various reasons, the Project did not receive a mid-term evaluation, which was
designed to provide an opportunity to review project performance in the middle of the
project period and make necessary changes to the course of action.
(ii) Management structure of Cambodia

H.E. Y Dan, Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice held consultation with Japanese side
about the Project. The Committee held a meeting every two weeks to discuss thecourse of action and the division of duties in Cambodia. This meeting served as a forum
where JICA long-term expert and the Cambodian side Cambodia shared informationand made necessary decisions.

2) Ownership by the implementing agencies of the Government of Cambodia
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ), an implementing agency of the Government of
Cambodia, took the lead in distributing human resources to support the project
implementation structure. H.E. Y Dan, and H.E. HY Sophea, also Secretary of State,
Ministry of Justice, participated in the Committee. H.E. Y Dan was responsible for the
management of the Committee, while H.E. HY Sophea for the technical aspect ofdrafting the Codes. In addition to this, The MOJ strengthened the Project Management
Structure by appointing high level MOJ officials and the most important judges to themembers of the Committee and placing MOJ officials to secretaries to the Committee.
In the process of legislating the two Codes, the MOJ elaborated on the two draft Codes
at occasions such as the Inter-Ministerial Meetings and took measures to ensure
consistency between the draft Codes and the related laws. Consequently, it was widely
perceived in the Government of Cambodia that coordination between the draft Codes
and the related laws was necessary and the MOJ officials were worth consulting with.
Officials from other ministries and members of the Council of Ministers in charge oflegislation have increasingly requested the MOJ officials to have consultation, whichindicated that the MOJ had established ownership in the activities for legal and judicial
development.

3) Contributing and Inhibiting factors to the ProjectThat the establishing the Codes was put on a priority of the Government of Cambodia
and that this was recognized by other donor countries and organizations contributed tothe effective implementation of the Project. Inhibiting factors were: the workload of the
MOJ officials who were in the Committee increased, as it was widely perceived that

coordination among the laws was necessary and the MOJ officials were trustworthy;
and some of the judges who were members of the Committee were appointed to judges
for the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, which inhibited them from participating in the Project.
3-2 Summary of Evaluation Results(1) Relevance
The Evaluation Team concluded that the Project was relevant for the following reasons:1) The Project was in line with both the development policy of Cambodia and theassistance policy of Japan(i) A series of development policy documents of the Government of Cambodia placed ahigh priority on both judicial reform and the establishment of the Civil Code and theCode of Civil Procedure high among national agenda. The Rectangular Strategy,
announced in June 2004, has identified judicial reform as a priority issue for theestablishment of good governance, the central theme of the strategy. Establishment of
the two Codes were a priority in the Short and Medium-Term Plan of Action for Legal
and Judicial Reform (April 2005) and the National Strategic Development Plans (June2006).
(ii) Japan’s Country Assistance Program for Cambodia, announced in 2002, had focusedon an earlier establishment of the Civil Code and the Code of Civil Procedure under its
policy of supporting the Government of Cambodia in enhancing good governance.
The JICA Country Program for Cambodia, which was previously announced in 2003,
and later renewed in 2006 as a draft for the time being, noted that developing law
program would be promoted on the basis of ”Strengthening the Rule of Law.”
2) The Project accommodated the needs of Cambodia: Knowledge and capacity
building for those who were involved in the legislation process, including the membersof the Committee, was in line with policy of the Government of Cambodia of pursing an
earlier establishment of key laws; and in the process of the preparatory study on the
Project, officials of the Government of Cambodia requested Japan to provide assistancein compiling a legal lexicon and guides and drafting the related laws/regulations.

Legal practitioners in Cambodia had high expectaions for information campaigns on
new laws.
3) The joint working approach, which was applied to this Project, having legal experts
from Cambodia committed to the whole process, including composing the draft Codesand getting involved in the legislation procedure. As a result, the Codes could reflect
domestic conditions and contributed to the development of human resources in
Cambodia.

(2) EffectivenessOne could assume that the Project was effective because both the Project Purpose andthe Outputs were generally attained. Nevertheless, the workload of some projectstakeholders increased unexpectedly as they had to address problems, which was
initially not enumerated in the Important Assumptions in the PDM.
The Project has progressed to achieving the Project Purpose. As for the attainment of
the planned Outputs, achievement of Outputs 1, 3, 4 and 5 contributed to the fulfillmentof the Project Purpose. On the other hand, as per of the Outputs 2 (“legal and judicial
experts will deepen their understanding of both bills”), the plan to conduct
disseminating seminars of the new Codes has not been fully put into action. In
addition, achievement of the Output 6 (“Related laws/regulations for the civil code will
be drafted”) by the end of the project term was impossible.
The planned Outputs have proved to be adequate and were appropriately associated with
the Project Purpose.
There was no change to the external condition that was assumed to be important in the
beginning: “The personnel engaged in the project activities will continue to work in thelegal and judicial sector.” However, while the project was being implemented, it
became apparent that a clear and systematic policy of the government of Cambodia on
legal and judicial development was also an important external condition to
implementation of the Project. As the project stakeholders moved deeper into thelegislation process, their workload increased more than it had been expected because
they needed to coordinate with other ministries about the related laws which were beingdrafted with the assistance from other donors. It was obvious that over-workload wasdue to inconsistent, or even non-existent, policies of the Government of Cambodia todevelop comprehensive legal and judicial system.

(3) Efficiency
The efficiency of the Project was secured to a certain extent as the inputs and project
activities were generally appropriate in terms of both timing and scale. However, as perof the size of the Inputs, implementation of the Project owed considerate amount ofworkload of the long-term experts. Also, an inadequate number of the members of theCommittee would remain to be a concern for the prospective implementation of the
Project.
A book of annotations and a textbook on the Code of Civil Procedure were timely
compiled. The drafting of transitional provisions for the Civil Code and the related
laws/regulations for the Code of Civil Procedure in Japanese was also timely. The
legal lexicon has already been edited and used by some practitioners, including
members of the Committee, although it has yet to be published officially.
Even though the MOJ requested JICA to dispatch short-term experts to organize
dissemination seminars, due to delay in arranging the schedule, the dispatch of theshort-term experts was not put in action by JICA.
The two experts, who were dispatched to Cambodia as a project coordinator and a legal
advisor, had so many duties in their routine works, including translating Japanese texts
into Khmer, examining Khmer texts and providing advice and instruction for theCommittee, that they could not catch up with the initial schedule in some activities of
the Project.
As mentioned previously on the implementation process, the MOJ officials who
participated in the Committee later became occupied with the considerate amount ofworkload. In addition, three of the judges who were members of the Committee found it
difficult to participate in the activities of the Committee because they were appointed tothe judges to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal when this evaluation was conducted..

(4) Impact
The Code of Civil Procedure was enacted in July 2006 and scheduled to come into force
in July 2007. For the Civil Code, the Inter-Ministerial Meeting already completed
consideration.. One could consider this progression to be the first step to attaining theOverall Goal and also the appearing sign of impact of the Project.
As noted previously in the section of Relevance, the joint working approach was
adopted in this project, which enabled legal experts of Cambodia to be involved in thewhole stages of the Project, including composing the draft Codes and establishinglegislation procedures. The Government of Cambodia highly evaluated this approach.
As a result, the government of Cambodia has begun to adopt this approach to otherprojects for legal and judicial development that are assisted by other donors (ex.
French-assisted project for drafting the Criminal Code and Australia for anti-terrorism
law). In fact, the government of Cambodia planed to incorporate the joint working
approach in the legislation procedures, which would be explicit in the guidelines, which
the Government of Cambodia was preparing. One might conclude that the aid approach
which the Government of Japan took was becoming the standard approach to legal andjudicial development in Cambodia.

(5) Sustainability
From the perspectives of policy, organizational/financial and human resources,
indications on sustainability of the Project are the following.
From the policy aspect, the project’s sustainability were considered high because theGovernment of Cambodia regarded the establishment of the Civil Code and the Code ofCivil Procedure as a national priority.
However, from the financial aspect, one could notice that sustainability of the Project
was low, because despite the efforts by the MOJ to secure a sufficient budget, budget
allocations for projects for legal and judicial development were inadequate In fact, theactivities concerning planning and implementing legal and judicial development
entailed unaffordable expenses, which otherwise should be subsidized by foreign donors.

On the other hand, the MOJ was in progress of improving its organizational capacity.
As per of disseminating activities, the Committee was elaborating a concrete plan to
conduct dissemination seminars about the Code of Civil Procedure in the local regions.
One could observe that there was an emerging sense of independency of the MOJ in
conducting dissemination activities: prior to conduct dissemination seminars in local
regions, the MOJ proposed to invite Japanese working group to Cambodia to giveseminars on the new Code for the higher courts’ judges to learn the Code, which would
lead to flawless implementation of the Code.
In terms of human resources, the grave concern to the project was the members of theCommittee could not participate in the project activities because their workload has
increased in coordination with other ministries about the related laws and some of themwere appointed to judges to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Measures should be taken to
maintain the Project activities in shour-term and to develop human resources who could
continue to work for legal and judicial development in long-term.

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Contributing and Inhibiting factors to the Project(1) Contributing factors
As mentioned earlier, the major contributing factors to the Project was that theGovernment of Cambodia put establishment of the Civil Code and the Code of Civil
Procedure on an priority in the national agenda, which was accepted by other donors.
Added to this, improvement of knowledge and capacity of the members of theCommittee contributed to implementation of the Project. It should be noted that theirknowledge and capacity have been developed since the implementation of Phase I of the
Project, in which the same members have consistently taken essential parts. I.
(2) Inhibiting factors
The Evaluation Team welcomed the fact that the high capability of members of theCommittee was widely recognized. On the other hand, this has resulted in an increased
workload of the members in coordination with other ministries about the related laws
and regulations, which disturbed them from concentrating on the Project activities.
Another inhibiting factor was that some of the members of the Committee wereappointed to judges to Khmer Rouge Tribunal: This unable them to participate in the
Project activities.

3-4

Conclusion

The Project has produced the following outcomes:• The legislation process has progressed: The Code of Civil Procedure was enacted inJuly 2006 and scheduled to come into force in July 2007;and The draft Civil Codepassed the Inter-Ministerial Meeting in September 2006.
• The members of the Committee has acquired enough knowledge and explanation
capacity of the Codes through such activities as (i) studying the Codes during training inJapan and seminars in Cambodia; (ii) acquiring knowledge about the related
laws/regulation; (iii) establishing terminology for the codes; (iv) managing the processof deliberating on the Codes, including providing explanations as necessary; and (v)ensuring consistency between the Codes and related laws being drafted by otherministries.
• The Committee has compiled a lexicon and a manual on the first instance procedure,
laying the groundwork for developing teaching materials to conduct dessemination
activities about the Codes in the future.
• Progress has been made in the process of drafting related laws/regulations andtransitional provisions for the Civil Code and the Code of Civil Procedure.
The Relevancy of the Project was high. It was significant that the joint working
approach has contributed to the capacity building of legal experts of Cambodia throughtheir activities in the whole legislation process, including the drafting the Codes andlegislation procedures. The following section identifies what should be done to produce
further outputs of the Project.

3-5 Recommendations (specific solutions, suggestions and advice for the Project)

(1) Extending the Project for one year
As it is difficult to achieve the Outputs 2 and 6, it is necessary to extend the Project for
one year. During the extended period, the both parties of Japan and Cambodia should
focus on promoting the understanding and knowledge of the legal and judicial experts
of Cambodia regarding the Civil Code and the Code of Civil Procedure.
Both parties should discuss and complete a specific plan for dissemination seminars by
January 2007. The plan should specify the target groups, teaching materials, andarrangements of the lecturers, and other necessary items.
A book of annotation and a textbook on the Civil Code are essential for disseminating
the Code. Japan should complete the book of annotations as soon as possible andcompile Japanese version of the textbook by March 2007.
It is necessary for the both parties of Japan and Cambodia sides to have the opportunity
to discuss the action plan for the extended period with regard to the establishment of therelated laws/regulations, as the Termination Evaluation Team could not discuss this indetail.

(2) Measures to be taken by Cambodia
The MOJ should take action to sustain the activities of the Committee given that its
members are occupied with securing consistency of the Codes with other ministries andwith their involvement in Khmer Rouge Tribunal. The MOJ should also consider
measures to train novice human resources to address the mid- to long-term issue of lackof manpower.
(3) Measures to be taken by JapanJICA should consider measures to deploy more experts in Cambodia, given the fact thatthe long-term experts from Japan, especially the project coordinator / legal advisor, haveconsiderate amount of workload.

JICA should hold closer consultations with stakeholders in Japan and in Cambodia, like
conducting regular meeting, for timely project activities.

3-6 Lessons Learned• Because neither project consultation study nor mid-term evaluation was conducted,
this Evaluation Team had to review the whole project process at the terminal evaluation,
which included examining the background, progress and performance and identifying
issues to be addressed. The reason that caused this situation was a lack of leadership inmaintaining coordination among the JICA Headquarters, the working groups in Japan,
and JICA Cambodia Office: This coordination could have facilitated sharing
information such as the overall policy of the Project, duties and concerns anddemarcated responsibilities of each of the said actors for the activities. JICA shouldplay a larger role in this respect, for example, by making better use of the liaison council
for work supervision.
• The textbooks and books of annotations which were produced in the Project would be
used in the Project for Improvement of Training on Civil Matters at the Royal Schoolfor Judges and Prosecutors (RSJP) of the Royal Academy for Judicial Professions,where some members of the Committee were teaching. This could facilitate
amalgamation of the process of legislation (draft, legislation and dissemination) andtraining of novice human resources.