ANAO Meeting – Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan, Sunday, September 14, 2019
Minutes of the meeting
Present (in alphabetical order by country):
Australia – Josh Wilson, Glenn Martin, Caroline Kirton
Bermuda – Juan Wolffe
Canada – Robert Blair, Julie Dutil, Thomas Cyr, Denis Jacques, Kristine Eidsvik, Thomas Heeney, Clayton Conlan
Kazakhstan – Madiyar Balken, Serinbayev Birlin
Mongolia – Tsogt Tsend, Munkh-Erdene Tsend-Ochir
Republic of China (Taiwan) – Kuo, Jen-Sheng (Stephen); Kuang, Yu-Ying; Hung, Chun-Li (Loulou); Lin, Yin-Lun (Grace); Hsin Hsuan Yu; Chen-Chou Hsu; Mei-Ying Wang; Shang-Yu Lin; Yen Chih, Chen; Yu-Ying, Wei; Wang, Han Ching (Jack)
United Kingdom – Sally Cahill
United States of America – Cynthia Rufe; President of ANAO, Allyson Duncan, David Carter
Yemen – Ahmed Al-Dhubhauy, Anis Shamsan
A. Business Meeting
1. 9:00 am - Welcome and introduction to meeting by President Duncan (USA)
Introductions around the head table and the room
2. Apologies and regrets – registrants who could not attend: Adrian Saunders (Bermuda) and Jennifer Davies (Australia)
3. Approval of the Minutes from Electronic Meeting in May 2019 – moved by Thomas Cyr (Canada) and seconded by Kristine Eidsvik (Canada); approved
4. Review of the Agenda for this meeting
5. Budget and dues
There are Associations that have not paid dues, including Iraq (the only ANAO member in this category). Membership will lapse soon.
President Duncan explains the distribution of funds among the Regional Groups. ANAO is the only group with reserve funds. We have to spend our budget funds or lose them.
6. Membership
There are two applications that are ready to be voted on – Lebanon and New Zealand. Both approved by Presidency Committee. Will be voted on this week. President Duncan speaks about the Lebanon application. Glenn Martin (Australia) speaks about the New Zealand application. Both applications are expected to be voted on approvingly this week.
Philippines also has a pending application. Tsogt Tsend (Mongolia) speaks about the application. The major issue to be addressed is judicial security. The report could not be completed for this Conference, due to time restraints. The goal will be to have the report submitted for the 2020 Conference in Costa Rica.
There is also a pending application from Yemen. President Duncan speaks about the status of the application and its impasse, for reasons given. Two rapporteurs have been selected. One rapporteur, David Carter (USA), is here and will meet with the Yemen representatives today. The second rapporteur from Algeria was unable to attend the Conference this week due to difficulties in his own country. The Yemen representatives speak about the application and the urgent need for it to be approved given the civil war and the unrest in Yemen. David Carter, in the absence of the Yemen representatives, speaks about the Yemen application. Others comment on the application and the desperation of the Yemen judges, including the representative from Bermuda, Juan Wolffe. Both David Carter and President Duncan speak about the importance of not putting the matter to a vote unless and until we are confident that the vote will succeed.
President Duncan speaks about other ANAO outreach efforts: Sri Lanka, Korea, India, Butan. Gabon has paid an admin. fee, as has Honduras. No meetings have been yet scheduled with those countries. There is room for further growth for ANAO.
Tsogt Tsend speaks about other outreach efforts. Inclusivity is vital to increasing membership for ANAO.
Special Address by IAJ President, Tony Pagone (Australia)
President Pagone’s comments included the following:
Thank you to Robert Blair (Canada) for being so instrumental in the development and growth of ANAO;
Thank you to the Kazakhstan Association for hosting this year’s IAJ Conference;
ANAO holds important positions in the IAJ, including the Study Commissions;
Tours scheduled this week in Nur Sultan are reviewed; and
There is a working committee that has designed standard forms for countries to form associations where none exists currently.
Glenn Martin and Julie Dutil (Canada) present IAJ President Pagone with a gift (a medal) and a thank you.
Julie Dutil describes the significance of the medal, the pioneering work of Justice Louise Mailhot (Canada), and a brief history of ANAO
10:30 am – coffee break
7. Amendments to the IAJ Constitution
A. CAJO and the Pacific Islands
Discussion led by President Duncan – Caribbean countries other than Bermuda operate and vote through Bermuda, for the purposes of the IAJ.
The Constitution does not permit the substitution of one member Association for another.
It was proposed that the IAJ allow for affiliate members – pay dues but no voting rights. That proposed amendment to the Constitution was tabled at the last meeting of the Central Council.
The idea of Regional Associations as members has been discussed – Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
Adrian Saunders has expressed to President Duncan that affiliate membership for Caribbean countries other than Bermuda is preferred.
The representative for Bermuda, Juan Wolffe, speaks about CAJO – the Caribbean Association of Judicial Officers, formed in 2009. About 30 countries are members. CAJO wants full membership in the IAJ, including with voting rights. Alternatively, non-voting membership would be gladly accepted. Either way, Bermuda would maintain its full membership status.
David Carter expresses concern about what an affiliate membership will actually mean going forward in the future.
Thomas Cyr speaks about the preference to have CAJO join as a regular member, not an affiliate member, but then the question is whether Bermuda is able to vote twice (on its own as a regular member and as part of CAJO).
Sally Cahill (U.K.) observes that the major concern will be voting rights for these Regional Associations like CAJO.
B. Threshold Required to Request the Presidency Committee for Monitoring
ANAO supports something less than 20% of member countries. It was proposed during our May 2019 electronic meeting that the threshold required should be 5 members.
Working Groups
Tsogt Tsend speaks about the IAJ working group dedicated to helping nations establish judges’ associations.
President Duncan outlines some updates from other working groups.
Glenn Martin speaks about judicial training principles. Julie Dutil speaks about the proposed mandatory judicial education Bill in Canada and the importance of judicial independence.
Clayton Conlan (Canada) speaks about the group studying the idea of adding a fourth official language, Portuguese, to the IAJ Constitution. The working group does not support that.
8. Future IAJ Conferences
September 26 to October 1, 2020 – proposed IAJ Conference in Costa Rica.
2021 – Israel is interested in being the host country.
Sally Cahill and President Duncan and Glenn Martin speak about the importance of settling on IAJ Conferences at least two, perhaps three, years ahead of time.
9. Presentation by Grace Lin (Taiwan) – UNODC Expert Group on Gender-Related Judicial Integrity
Grace attended this meeting in Seoul, Korea, on behalf of ANAO. See her paper for a full report.
Grace highlighted some of the issues during her verbal presentation, including but not limited to: gender bias on the part of judges, the Universal Charter of Judges, judicial independence, and the law of consent regarding sexual assault prosecutions.
10. Next ANAO Meeting
May 18-20, 2020. Federal Judicial Centre at Arlington, Virginia, and at Washington, DC. This is the proposed ANAO mid-year meeting for 2020.
President Duncan describes the tentative plan for the program. A law professor at Duke University has been invited to attend. A neuroscientist at Duke University Hospital has been invited to attend.
Open discussion on other ideas for the Meeting – visit to and tour of the Supreme Court of the United States building, visit to the Patent and Trademark Office, visit to the African American Museum
President Duncan will send out further particulars by email, such as hotel suggestions. All ANAO members to indicate firm attendance by December 15, 2019.
Volunteers recruited to help plan the May 2020 meeting.
11. Reports from Member Associations
Thomas Heeney, Canada: (i) Bill C-58 (publication of expenses for federal judges) and judicial independence, and (ii) Bill C-337 (mandatory judicial education related to sexual assault cases) and judicial independence, were both discussed.
The CSCJA continues to fight hard to protect judicial independence. That includes recognition that education for judges must be judge-led.
Glenn Martin, Australia: (i) there are different compulsory retirement ages for judges in Australia – 70, 72, and 75 years; (ii) there are problems with the media photographing judges outside their homes; (iii) judges have not had a pay raise in four years; (iv) some politicians have proposed a sort of merging of the courts; and (v) it is proposed that a federal commission be established to deal with the discipline of judges.
Tsogt Tsend, Mongolia: the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court resigned because of amendments to the law allowing the suspension of a judge accused of corruption. July 2019 – 17 federal judges were suspended by this new power granted to the national security council.
Grace Lin, Taiwan: Taiwan remains a very active participant of ANAO. Recent efforts of the Association have focused particularly on ways to protect judicial independence. The Association is growing and is healthy and diverse.
Cynthia Rufe, USA: the Federal Judges’ Association is committed to, among other things, ensuring judicial independence and judicial education. The Association works with the public, the Bar Associations, private organizations, and so on, to protect judicial impartiality. Salary and benefits are important things for the Association to safeguard and improve. Many participants in the justice system are vulnerable to government shutdowns. Mandatory education for judges is one example of the cause of some strife between the legislatures and the FJA. The Association has worked recently on initiatives to encourage the reporting of judicial misconduct and amendments to the Code of Conduct for Judges. The Office of Judicial Integrity has been established.
1:15 p.m. – lunch break
B. Plenary Session Topic: Judicial Stress
Robert Blair introduces the topic and the speakers. Judicial stress touches us all, directly or indirectly.
Josh Wilson (Australia), Lead Report
Josh addressed several areas in his presentation, including but not limited to the following.
Judicial stress is now more recognized as a legitimate problem, for several reasons.
What is judicial stress? There are emotional and physiological components to it.
What causes judicial stress? Three major things: (i) increased workload, (ii) increased complexity in the work, and (iii) more self-represented litigants.
Consequences of judicial stress? They include burn-out and bad behavior or outbursts in the courtroom.
Dr. Carly Schrever has done a formal study about judicial stress. It is the first of its kind, internationally. Alcohol and drug abuse are real consequences of judicial stress, beyond the obvious ones like burn-out.
Take-away message from Josh: “knowledge leading to cure”. We judges should avoid loneliness, achieve a greater work-life balance, exercise, and do whatever we can to be less vulnerable to succumbing to the unrelenting workload that we face these days.
Kristine Eidsvik (Canada), Responding Report
Kristine touched on several areas during her presentation, including but not limited to the following.
More and more judges in Canada are retiring early.
A Supreme Court of Canada Judge has recently commented, publicly, on his own mental health. That experience with Justice Gascon is a stark contrast to what happened with a former SCC Judge, Justice Le Dain, many years ago. Then, the mental health struggles of Justice Le Dain were not made public but rather were hidden and largely ignored.
There is a program of free assistance for federal judges in Canada. That program can be accessed by those judges who are struggling with stress-related issues.
As Kristine put it, the first step to fixing the problem is to recognize it.
Tsogt Tsend (Mongolia), Commentary
Tsogt highlighted that tight deadlines are a source of great stress for judges. For example, in Mongolia, having to release a written decision or judgment within as few as five business days after the hearing is very daunting.
The lack of job security is also a source of stress for judges in Mongolia and, perhaps, in other countries around the world as well.
Open discussion on Judicial Stress
We heard a very touching story on behalf of a judge from the United Kingdom, a story about the loss of a loved one struck by a motor vehicle and the terribly stressful litigation process that followed, ending in an acquittal in traffic court for the accused.
Sally Cahill queried what kind of help is offered to judges in other countries who are facing allegations of misconduct.
Cynthia Rufe talked about a counselling program available for jurors, post-verdict, in the United States. She also discussed her own personal experience with a very difficult criminal matter where vulnerable children were the victims of truly heinous crimes.
Robert Blair commented about a hotline available for judges in the US, established by the American Bar Association.
Thomas Heeney spoke about his own extremely difficult criminal trial involving the kidnapping, torture, and murder of a young girl in Ontario, Canada. He observed that he would not have been able to effectively handle that case but for his efforts to maintain a detached, clinical approach to the trial.
President Duncan observed that there is another point of view, namely, that empathy on the part of the judge can be something that makes that person a better judge.
Perhaps those two things (the comments of Justice Heeney and of President Duncan) are not mutually exclusive, it was pointed out by others in the room.
Juan Wolffe spoke about the anxiety that he feels with child sexual abuse cases. He also spoke about the fact that we judges are human beings and face stress in our daily lives that is quite apart from our professional work.
Kristine Eidsvik spoke about the judges counselling program in Canada and the role of the CSCJA in establishing that program.
Josh Wilson spoke about how Dr. Schrever explains the unique role of a judge and how that role makes a judge that much more vulnerable to occupational stress.
Glenn Martin outlined that Australia has a counselling program for judges and also places limits on how many like-cases a judge can hear, with the hope of improving the mental health of that judge.
Thomas Cyr asked whether the Canadian experience of more and more mental health problems appearing in the courtroom is a phenomenon present in other countries as well. The consensus is that it is, as reflected in the comments of Josh Wilson.
Kristine Eidsvik and Juan Wolffe spoke about the development of special mental health courts.
Tsogt Tsend spoke about the challenges in managing persons with mental health difficulties and self-represented litigants.
Next year’s topic: Diversity and the Judiciary, to be further defined by Robert Blair and the speakers for September 2020 (to include Grace Lin and Clayton Conlan).
4:30 p.m. – ANAO’s September 2019 meeting adjourned