IACA Conference
International
Association for Court Administration
Third International Conference
Worldwide Innovations in Court Systems
April 21 - 23,
2008
Dublin
Castle
Dublin, Ireland
Random Personal Notes by Mark
Hatcher
General Session:
Technological Innovations in the Courts
It is very easy to assume that technological innovations in
the courts originate in America and migrate one direction
out to other countries. This session served to illustrate
that this isn’t universally the case. In fact, the
Honorable Richard Magnus, Chief Judge, Subordinate Courts
of Singapore, very aptly displaced that notion. Among other
things, he explained how in Singapore, low level criminal
defendants (as well as traffic offenders) can plead guilty
to the equivalent of ATM machines and pay their fines in
the same transaction. [Note: Imagine filing bankruptcy and
making Plan payments via this sort of system.]
Case Assignment Systems: Lessons Learned and Best
Practices
How cases are assigned and what processes are involved in
transferring a case from one judge to another is a big
issue for courts in emerging countries that are trying to
establish the rule of law. Corruption was a major
discussion point in this segment and clearly a very real
issue to these courts. It is an issue that isn’t
necessarily void in the American court system, but it is
rampant in emerging countries, at least based on the
conversation in this segment.
Achieving Justice in States Torn By War
and Civil Turmoil
Afghanistan
Honorable Abdul Rasheed, Justice, Supreme Court of
Afghanistan, Kabul, Afghanistan
* 30 years of war
* erosion of public confidence in the courts
* professional skills obliterated
* in 2006, reforms began to restore confidence by
establishing standards and training for judges and
administrators
* continuing education was begun for the country’s
1500 judges, including ethics training
* Afghanistan wants its judges to have educational training
opportunities abroad
* the country needs more adequate facilities
* the Supreme Court is housed in inadequate facilities, but
a new court building is being built. However, most other
court facilities across the country are inadequate
* security of judges is poor; six judges have been killed
in recent times; hard to attract new judges; consequently,
the existing judges oftentimes must travel long distances
to hear cases
* the road ahead is daunting; key to rebuilding is to stay
the course
* funding for the courts is beginning to increase
* a perception of fair justice verdicts is beginning to
prevail
* assistance to Afghanistan courts by the U.S., Finland,
and others is increasing
* there has been a major propaganda campaign against the
justice process in Afghanistan which must end
Lebanon
Honorable Choucri Sader, Judge and Director of the
Institute of Judicial Studies, Ministry of Justice of
Lebanon, Beirut, Lebanon
(Speaking eloquently on short notice in English since a
French interpreter was not available.)
* between 1973 - 1991, there have been many conflicts and
wars; civil war; wars between Lebanon and other countries;
war with Palestinians
* this has had a severe impact on the judicial system
* the population of Lebanon includes at least 18 diverse
and varied groups, including Druze, Sunni Muslims, Shiite
Hezbollah, Christians, etc.
* there has been structural and human level
impacts on the courts
* on the structural level, courts everywhere in the country
except Beirut were burned and destroyed
* All records were destroyed
* most outlying courts had to be moved to safer places in
the country such as to Beirut
* bombings and shellings would prevent judges from coming
to work so predictability was lost to lawyers and
litigants. This created major problems for the system of
justice
* 1970s - 1990s, there was no opportunity to take advantage
of technological advances. Lebanon could not even copy
technology from other countries and courts
* hope is that in the next 5 years Lebanon will be able to
apply technology
* Lebanon courts need money
* on the human level, there was a degradation of the
schools during this period. Whereas kids used to go to
school five days a week, for 15 years, kids could only go
to school one day a week for little more than half-day
* consequently, there was no talent to recruit highly
qualified lawyers and judges; those who were selected were
not the best of the best, they were the best among those
available
* the very best educated most often left Lebanon
* there is a need to totally restructure court management
in Lebanon
* there must prevail an emerging political will to improve
the rule of law in order to develop the court system
* there is still a big political mess which prevents
Lebanon from moving ahead
Palestine
Honorable Assad Mubarak, Judge, High Court of Palestine and
Member, High Judicial Council, Ramallah, West Bank,
Palestine
* since 1946, Gaza/West Bank, two different legal/court
systems have developed based on different historical roots.
* no harmonization has taken place
* there are 172 judges, too few for a population of 4
million people; there is a major backlog of cases; 76,000
pending criminal cases; a shortage of clerks to handle the
administration
* there is a lack of security in Gaza/West Bank
* check points have made ordinary life difficult; Judge
Mubarak lives in Bethlehem and it used to take him
30-minutes to drive to Ramallah. Now, it takes him 4-hours.
* judicial independence is in jeopardy
* Palestine is seeing a second uprising of the Infitada,
with new militias
* judges have been kidnapped for not releasing militia
leaders
* sometimes court staff have not been paid
* Hamas has been seizing court building
* there is limited automation; 12 courts are automated
Rwanda
Honorable Tharcisse Karugarama, Minister of Justice and
Attorney General of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda
(Starts with joke. Husband and wife have had poor
relationship for years. He tells her when she dies he will
engrave her headstone: “Dead, and cold as
ever”. She tell him she will engrave his:
“Stiff, at last”.)
* more than 1 million people slaughtered in 1993-94
* international community failed Rwanda even after saying
‘never again’ after the Holocaust
* why the U.N. left during the genocide is unexplainable
* in 1994, Rwanda was a nation without hope
* immediate problems: how to handle the corpses, including
dogs; how to prevent revenge; how to prevent anarchy; how
to restore the economy; how to reconcile the nation
* for the courts, the question was how to deal with a huge
backlog of civil and criminal cases
* since 1999, Rwanda is stable and peaceful
* justice has been restored; faith in the justice process
has been restored
* there is still much to do in Rwanda, but there is much
hope
* in 2007, the death penalty was repealed, and the death
penalties of those already convicted were commuted to life
in prison
* for non-violent offenders, most of the criminal sentences
in Rwanda are major community service sentences rather than
prison
Sudan
David Pimentel, Asst. Professor, Florida Coastal School of
Law
Former Senior Judicial Affairs Officer, United Nations
Mission in Sudan, Juba, Sudan
* the Sudan is the largest country in Africa and has been
at war for 50 years
* it has a population of 11 million people
* the fighting today is between factions in the north
against factions in the south
* there is very extreme poverty in the Sudan
* the Sudan sits on vast oil reserves - so has potential
wealth - but there is no mechanism to bring it to market
* there is no meaningful economy
* the population does not have the education to be
qualified to be lawyers and judges
* automation of any kind is out of the question
* no business enterprises are willing to work in the Sudan
because: 1) it is simply too unstable and dangerous and, 2)
there is no effective justice system so the financial risks
are too great
* ultimately, for business interests to ever venture into
the Sudan, there will have to be some effective form of
commercial court, which also has some form of bankruptcy
protection