Communal Justices of the Peace in Venezuela

= "At the local level, a movement of communal justice is gradually spreading an alternative to the traditional adversarial court system to settle civil disputes".

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Arlene Eisen:

"At the local level, a movement of communal justice is gradually spreading an alternative to the traditional adversarial court system to settle civil disputes. Venezuela’s independence leader Simon Bolivar first stipulated in the 1819 Constitution that there should be a Peace Judge (juez de la paz) in every parish to perform marriages, register births and deaths. However, during the last ten years, with the addition of “communal” to the title, the revolutionary version has developed as part of the process of institutionalizing popular power. In ten municipalities, several hundred communal judges facilitate resolution of long-standing local disputes. Their approach finds “win-win” solutions to conflicts in which each side learns to settle their own disputes.

During two separate meetings with Mylvia Acosta, Venezuelanalysis.com learned how the 2012 Organic Law on Communal Justice of the Peace works in practice. During her four years as a communal peace judge in the town of Charallave, municipality of Cristobal Rojas, Acosta has helped to settle more than 100 cases. She insists on sharing credit for resolutions with community members. A local community people’s assembly in Charallave elected her to a four-year renewable term to serve as their communal judge. All residents in the town are eligible to participate in the assembly and valid elections require a 51% quorum of residents. Since all communal judges serve as volunteers, without salary, she only works on two or three cases a month." (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10810)