The World Bank's 2017 Essay On Ease Of Doing Business.

Task One

Describe about the World Banks 2017 Report on Ease of Doing Business.

Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All is a part of the annual flagship program of the World Bank. It is 14^th in the series of reports that checks which of the measures of the government enhances the business activity and which degrades them. It covers regulations that affect as many as 11 areas of the business life. Among which, ten regulations are associated with how we can easily start and operate a business like dealing with electricity permits, construction permits, getting credit, protecting the investors etc. (World Bank, 2016)

The article covers whether the different economies of the world are adopting a practice that supports quality and efficiency in the various court proceedings and the complex court systems. Various data are collected through proper research and study of many court proceedings and also survey was done and questionnaires were distributed among legal personalities like the lawyers and judges. After proper scrutiny, proper ranking is done based on the ease of enforcement of contracts by sorting the distance to frontier scores for contracts being enforced. The five key indicators for enforcing contracts are (Civilsdaily, 2016)–

1) Court Structure and Proceedings

The court structure and proceeding ahs five components

Whether there is a special section that is attributed to hearing commercial cases only, so that cases can be resolved fast.

Whether in smaller courts, there is proper facility for fast track cases and easy devolvement of small claim cases. It is seen whether proper procedure is in place, people are allowed to attend the hearing, and stand alone courts are adopting simplified procedures or not. Various grading is given keeping all the factors in mind.

Whether in cases where the plaintiff fear that the movable assets might be moved out in case of dispute they can obtain pretrial attachment of the same.

Whether there is no hard and fast rule for attachment of cases and they are attached on a random basis to the judges in a component court.

Whether in a component court, a women plea and stand is given the same importance as that of a man. (Doingbusiness.org, 2016)

2) Case Management Index

The case management Index is concerned with whether the cases and their management is effective, by seeing whether proper time standards are set for various key proceedings of the court like first hearing, filing of statement etc. It also how many time the cases are being adjourned and how are they regulated post that, whether there are any performance measurement reports that monitor the performance of the court and its proceedings. It also sees whether judges are allowed to use effective electronic case management system in one or more disciple, also whether lawyers are also permitted to use the same or not and also there is pretrial component in case of certain courts and whether they are implemented effectively or not. (Doingbusiness.org, 2016)

3) Court Automation Index

The Court Automation covers four sections, whether initial complaint has been filed electronically or not, whether we can serve the initial complaint on the defendant electronically or not, whether there is any option to pay court fees electronically thorough online portals and banking facilities, and also it is checked whether the judgments that these courts rendered are made available in official gazettes and newspapers for general public. On the analysis of these conditions, rankings are provided to the respective courts. (Doingbusiness.org, 2016)

Court Structure and Proceedings

4) Alternative Dispute Resolution

The alternative dispute resolution has six components.

Whether consolidated chapters of law or of various civil proceedings covers and governs various aspects of arbitration or not.

Whether disputes that are public in nature can be submitted to the arbitration tribunal like employment issues, bankruptcy, public policy etc.

Whether in more than 50% cases, the local courts are enforcing valid arbitration clauses or not. Scores area assigned on the basis of the same.

Whether in order to resolve commercial disputes, voluntary meditation, conciliation or both are followed or not.

Whether those who opt for voluntary meditation and conciliation are given monetary benefits.

Whether these conciliation and voluntary practices are governed by component court of law and civil procedures. (Doingbusiness.org, 2016)

The overall quality of judicial processes is judged by the overall sum of the score of the other key indicators like the court structure and proceedings, case management, court automation, and the alternative dispute resolution. Higher values represent better management; the index ranges from around 0 to 18. The better the score, the better the management and vice-versa.

These indicators have been very helpful in case of effective management of small businesses and startups. As per the report, the indicators helps in ranking, how an economy is functioning on a global scale and that helps in effective management of the business. It also provides guidance in sections like how to start the business and manage it effectively, and that is also beneficial for the key business activity. It helps in easy remedial measures for judicial legislative activities and proceedings and that helps in solving so many cases on time and saves cost and time. And along with the era of digitalization and its emphasis on increasing the focus on electronic transaction, it has been helpful in bringing a global change. Out of all these key indicators, the two most beneficial indicators for effective management in case of small and medium enterprises are the court structure and proceeding and automation of court procedures. (Doingbusiness.org, 2016)

Automation of court procedures have been beneficial in many ways, as per the survey, law firms’ need to deliver on time and meet the clients expectation and automation helps in that, since everything is online so a lot of time is saved. Manual processes are costly and time consuming. As per the Stuart Fuller, Global Managing Partner, King & Wood Mallesons, automation helps in aligning all the core activities of any business to a single source. Various small and law firms are benefited, like as said by Dick Jensen, Director of IT, Goodmans LLP, the employees can be freed from the burden of doing manual work and also it helps in increasing the productivity of the firm all over. (K2.com, 2016)

The court management and proceedings are also helpful for small businesses. Effective court management helps in various ways; it reduces the risks that are faced by various firms and makes them more effective. Since court practices are properly regulated, the businesses benefit since cases are easily solved and total cost associated and time wastage is also less. The efficiency of courts continues to vary greatly around the world. Enforcing a contract through the courts can take less than 10 months in New Zealand, Norway and Rwanda but almost 4 years in Bangladesh. And the total cost of doing so ranges from less than 10% of the expected value of the claim in Iceland, Luxembourg and Norway. Effective court management has also benefited many small businesses and firms.

2. Conclusion

The research process was easy and there was a lot of information that could be collected, since the policy of good business is famous and liberated in many countries. After an extensive study , and collecting information from many online portals, and conducting surveys within friends and also after consulting with some lawyers and finance persons, I reached to the conclusion that this policy though has helped in reducing corruption and has steadfast the entire process of legal proceeding around the world through effective court proceedings , case assessments and automation proceedings, it still needs to be more effective in its implementation, then it is on paper. For proper implementation, proper supervision should be there and effect penalty should be applied for people who don’t follow the guidelines. The entire policy is very good and well written on paper, more and more people are trying to benefit from the same, through their business development schemes and switching to electronic modes and opting for fast track courts. Moreover more and more people are benefitting since the cases are solved fast and gone are days when proceeding would have continued even after the death of the victim. I dint face much problem in this case, and was much impressed for the publication to come up with such policies that are so effective in the long run. The only problem I faced while going through the policy was that they used many ambiguous words in their article, and it sometimes becomes difficult for the normal people to read there in and understand what the statement exactly means. General people will not be able to understand it and thus won’t be able to use it for their benefit. Except that everything else in on point and a very good policy to follow. The research was an eye opener and made we aware how the legal system of the world is changing for the better.

References:

K2.com. (2016). Legal case management: the five benefits of automation. [online] Available at: https://www.k2.com/blog/legal-case-management-the-five-benefits-of-automation [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016]

World Bank. (2016). India Makes Big Strides to Improve Business Climate, says Latest Doing Business Report. [online] Available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2016/10/25/india-makes-big-strides-to-improve-business-climate-says-latest-doing-business-report [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].

Civilsdaily. (2016). Ease of Doing Business. [online] Available at: https://www.civilsdaily.com/story/ease-of-doing-business/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].

Doingbusiness.org. (2016). Methodology for Enforcing Contracts - Doing Business - World Bank Group. [online] Available at: https://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology/enforcing-contracts [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].