CEELI liaisons often live and work in places where the comforts of life that you and I often take for granted do not exist. Another important component of CEELI is its Sister Law School Program. This program pairs the host country law schools with American law schools. Over the course of the past four years, CEELI has established itself as a fundamental force for law reform in Central and Eastern Europe and the NIS. To date, CEELI has conducted 131 Technical Legal Assistance Workshops; assessed over 275 draft laws; placed 105 long-term liaisons and 130 legal specialists in the region; hosted 47 Central and Eastern European law school deans; sent dozens of U.S. legal reform experts to assist in law school reform; and has placed over 50 students from the NIS in LLM programs throughout the United States. The credit for this remarkable achievement goes to the over 4,000 American attorneys, judges, legal scholars, and private practitioners, who have, as acts of public service, given their time and expertise to make this project successful. When calculating the in-kind contributions of volunteer legal professionals at an understated rate of $100 per hour, CEELI has yielded over $45 million of pro bono service. This represents a 451% leverage of USAID funding. A more realistic estimate of $225 per hour would yield a total in-kind contribution of approximately $67 million, which would represent a 760% leverage of USAID funding. Considering the modest CEELI budget in comparison to funding allocated to consulting firms, the exceptional programmatic impact and financial leverage that a non-governmental organization can achieve by using qualified volunteer professionals in a public service project is indisputable. This model of a volunteer professional assistance project is a viable and cost-effective alternative to other uses of U.S. government funding by, for example, for-profit firms. Congress has voiced strong support for programs like CEELI and their ability to leverage U.S. taxpayer dollars (H.R. Rep. No. 143, 104th Cong., 1st Sess., 31 (1995); S. Rep. No. 143, 104th Cong., 1st Sess., 42 (1995)). lawyers who are at its foundation and creating a long-term capacity for this training. Improving the capacity of these long-neglected institutions - including the libraries is indispensable for overall judicial reform. This project has sparked an impressive commitment of time and resources from the deans and professors at over 25 United States sister law schools from a relatively small amount of USIA funding. The new Clinical Partnership Project will assist in the development of clinical legal education programs at the African schools. The new clinical teaching capacity will mean that the law schools will be able to play an even more significant role than before in attempts to establish the rule of law in African countries. Conclusion Foreign aid is an easy target for criticism because its benefits are not always well understood or clear. The ABA appreciates the difficult task your Subcommittee has in dealing with the 1997 foreign operations appropriations bill. Yet, Mr. Chairman, we hope that your decisions will be guided by a realistic cost-benefit analysis. The ABA "legal infrastructure" programs have yielded real leverage a tremendous return on the modest U.S. financial investment. The ABA capitalizes on a tremendous amount of free legal expertise. Legal and commercial infrastructure also creates markets and purchasing power to buy U.S. products. Forty percent of U.S. exports go to developing countries, which is the fastest growing segment of our export market. The aforementioned ABA projects have also proven to be extremely cost effective, relative to the very modest U.S. financial investment. They are leanly run. Given the accomplishments and significant dollar return, the ABA projects could be a model for other foreign technical assistance. By contrast, a termination of the current modest investment will undermine the potential return on what has been achieved so far. 24-646 96-13 B. The ABA Cambodia Democracy & Law Project The Cambodia Law and Democracy Project ("Cambodia Project") was launched by the ABA Section of International Law and Practice during 1992 at the request of Cambodian institutions seeking assistance with Cambodia's law modemization process. The principal purpose of the project is to assist Cambodia in planning and implementing legal and judicial reforms to promote democracy, a market economy, and the rule of law. Under a grant from the Asia Foundation in 1993, this project established a legal resource/research library in Phnom Penh principally through ABA donations. ABA Constitutional Law Advisors assisted in drafting the new Constitution during 1993-94, and legal education advisors provided a needs assessment of Cambodia's legal education programs and institutions. Short-term advisors traveled to Cambodia during 1993-94 to assist in the areas of foreign investment, contract law, and commercial arbitration. U.S. legal experts provided commentary in the areas of border disputes, intellectual property, penal code issues, environmental law, family law, and bar association development. During 1994, an ABA resident legal advisor was placed in Phnom Penh to oversee all ABA and Asia Foundation legal initiatives. This led to a request from USAID that the ABA take on a larger role in the law development process in Cambodia, which resulted in a cooperative agreement between USAID/Cambodia and the ABA in 1995. The project currently has three long-term resident advisors in Cambodia at the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Justice and the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia (BAKC) respectively, providing institution-building, teaching, and legal drafting assistance. These individuals are drafting a Commercial Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, and other laws relevant to the establishment of democratic and market systems. Other short-term advisors are providing comprehensive assistance in the areas of criminal law, environmental law, international treaty obligations, nationality law, integration in ASEAN, and other issues. As with all ABA legal technical assistance programs, the ABA Cambodia Law and Democracy Project develops all program components at the request of, and in close consultation with, participating country institutions. The bulk of the assistance continues to be provided by U.S. lawyers on a pro bono basis and utilization of donated materials, allowing a small grant to be leveraged for the benefit of democracy in the host country. The Cambodia project has received $1,000,308 over the last three years, and the ABA has contributed an additional $784,000 to this project. C. African Initiatives In 1995, the United States Information Agency (USIA) awarded the ABA two separate grants to conduct a judicial exchange program and a law school program. ABA volunteers involved in the Robert A. Shuker U.S./Africa Judicial Exchange Program worked extensively with the judiciaries of Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia. The thrust of the judicial exchange program was to nurture the development of independent legal systems in these nascent democracies and to underscore the importance of the independence of the judiciary in a democracy. The ABA, in conjunction with the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada and the District of Columbia Superior Court, conducted a thirty day training program. Twelve African judges attended programs at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada, the District of Columbia Superior Court, and the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Virginia. The judicial exchange training program emphasized swift and fair resolution of lawsuits and demonstrated how mediation can be an effective tool in resolving large caseloads. There is also a potential project in Rwanda where ABA judges and public defenders may lend support for the upcoming UN War Crimes trials in July 1996. In addition to the U.S./Africa Judicial Exchange Program, the ABA assisted eleven law schools in eight African countries: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, and Zambia. Law schools are at the heart of efforts in Africa to establish a durable rule of law through training the |