Kana Manabe was assigned to Phnom Penh to participate as an expert in a project of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) called Japanese Cooperation to Support the Formulation of Key Government Policies on the Judicial System in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Background and Overview of the Project: (This is an English translation of part of the Summary of Evaluation Results of the second phase of the Formulation of the Judicial System project announced by JICA in 2006)

Since the end of the civil war in 1991, the Kingdom of Cambodia’s primary national issue has been the reform of its legal and judicial system in order to establish the rule of law. However, due to a lack of basic legal systems, such as fundamental laws, a severe shortage of government personnel and human resources in judicial branches and the low technical level of the human resources, it has been difficult for Cambodia to formulate a legal and judicial system on its own. It was under these circumstances that, upon request from the Cambodian government, JICA launched in March 1999 a project to support the formulation of a legal system in Cambodia, aiming to draft laws and codes, such as a civil code and the code of civil procedure, to prepare procedures to enforce laws, and to develop judicial-related agencies. Since then, JICA has cooperated in drafting a civil code and a code of civil procedure through joint efforts of the Japanese and Cambodian drafting team and in fostering human resources in the field of justice and legislation in order to develop a legal and judicial system suitable for market economy of Cambodia. After a year’s extension due to the delay in the joint drafting work, initially the project completed the final drafts in March 2003 and finished providing cooperation by delivering the drafts of the civil code and code of civil procedure to the Cambodian department of justice.

With a view of further enhancing such continual support from Japan, the Cambodian government requested JICA to continue its cooperation through Phase 2, which aims primarily to offer support in enacting the civil code and code of civil procedure and developing related laws and ordinances. After representative directors of both sides executed an agreement in April 2004, JICA commenced the Project for the Formulation of Key Government Policies on the Judicial System (Phase 2).