Monday, March 19, 2001
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Trial run
Innovative program helps train the world’s judges
By Kathy Pharr
pharr@uga.edu

A growing number of countries are contacting the School of Law about its innovative international judicial training program, a joint venture between the Dean Rusk Center, the Institute of Continuing Judicial Education, and UGA’s Office of International Development. Columns talked with the program’s co-directors: María Giménez, the Rusk Center’s associate director for programs, and Rich Reaves, ICJE’s executive director.

Columns: Who is the target audience?
Giménez: Let me preface my answer by saying that an efficient, reliable court system in which the public has confidence is the key element of structural reform in any country in the world. So we are looking at any countries that are undergoing change--economic change, governmental change, judicial reform--but we are especially trying to work in those countries where the university already has ongoing programs. We want to take full advantage of the university’s excellent contacts.

Columns: What countries have participated so far?
Giménez: In late November, the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, sent its third group of judges to Athens to participate. Pernambuco’s previous, current and future chief justices all have gone through the training program, which began in 1998. Due to our success with Pernambuco, we have been contacted by the National Magistrate School in Brasilia to work on a program for all of Brazil.
A judge and a court administrator from Ghana also attended the November session. We’ve traveled to Panama and Guatemala, and talks are ongoing with Mongolia and Venezuela, but we have a long way to go. Argentina is interested in judicial and prosecutorial training, which might be arranged in the future. One of the main issues, of course, is to get outside funding for the countries to be able to participate. For that, we seek support from the World Bank, United Nations Development Program, and Inter-American Development Bank.

Columns: ICJE has twice been honored by the American Bar Association for its expertise in judicial training. How is that training applicable to foreign judicial systems?
Reaves: Many countries do not have a two-tiered state/federal court system like ours; most have only a state-based system, so our state training focus is particularly relevant. The visiting judges and court administrators attend lectures and discussions on judicial independence, court leadership, legal ethics and professionalism, and efficient administration. They tour and meet with local judges and court administrators, observe a jury trial in Athens-Clarke County, and view specialized trial courts in Atlanta as well as the Georgia Court of Appeals and Georgia Supreme Court. For the most part, they seek practical knowledge. How can they run their offices more efficiently? They want these answers more than some principle of law like judicial review. Our course gives people a chance to rub shoulders with judges, court administrators or judicial secretaries on these issues, a real strength.

Columns: What else do the foreign judges learn?
Reaves: There are two thrusts to the training. The first is judicial independence. We have participants who come from places where the judiciary has been in dysfunction, so they want to know what can be done institutionally to establish respect for the judicial branch of government and maintain that respect so that it can begin to emerge as equal with their other branches of government.
The second thrust is judicial administration. In Brazil, the caseload is horrendous per judge, and so those judges look very seriously at how they might better manage their caseload and publish their opinions.

Columns: Where do you hope to take the program from here?
Giménez: The program is in an early stage, but now we are moving it forward. In addition to its express objective of using our faculty and student expertise to improve the administration of national judicial systems in various parts of the world, it will contribute to the Dean Rusk Center, School of Law, ICJE and other university programs through the contacts we make at the highest level in the countries where we work. UGA has government training programs in the Carl Vinson Institute of Government through its International Center for Democratic Governance, which is working to expand its training internationally. Therefore, we are now one of the few universities in the United States to have both government and judicial training programs with an international focus.
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