Since it is on everyone’s mind, take the Philippines’s judicial system, for example. Countless references to US jurisprudence and case law have been made during the impeachment trial. An outside observer could honestly think that the Filipino system is but a mirror image of what happens in the US. If the law is basically the same, then why is the local judicial system seemingly inadequate at dispensing justice and is inefficient?
Although the Philippine judicial system looks, walks and talks like the US, it is not. Trials, both civil and criminal, in the US are totally different from those the Philippines for two reasons that may explain the different results.
Actually, judges in the US rarely “judge” anything except rules of law and the rules of court. In virtually all cases, except administrative such as impeachment or bankruptcy, judges are more like referees between the two opposing sides. Juries, which cannot be involved in the trial in any way, decide guilt and liability.
The second huge difference, which may explain why decisions often take years here, is that in the US, trials run on a “continuing hearing” basis. Judges do everything in their power to have day after day of trial until the verdict is reached. Then they move to the next case.
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