The members of the Presidency Committee met by electronic means on Wednesday to discuss how best we should act in our current circumstances. It is clear that a meeting of Central Council in Costa Rica will not take place this year. The Judicial Association of Costa Rica has generously expressed its willingness to hold the planned meeting as soon as events make that possible but it is beyond doubt that it will not occur during the calendar year of 2020. There is simply too much to plan and put in place for a meeting of our size which cannot reliably be planned and put in place for a meeting in 2020 even on the most optimistic of forecasts.
Accordingly, we are now in discussions with the Association of Costa Rica for a new date to hold the meeting which had been planned for September 2020 in Costa Rica. We shall let you know as soon as we can about the revised date. Selecting a date in current circumstances is not easy but I am sure that I express the gratitude of each and everyone of our members when I thank the Association of Judges in Costa Rica for their helpfulness in every way. I wish also to thank the Israeli Association for their generosity and flexibility concerning the Meeting which is currently planned for Tel Viv in 2021 but may (depending upon ultimate arrangements) be deferred until 2022.
The Presidency Committee has had to make a number of difficult decisions in the current circumstances which will more fully be outlined to you by the Secretary General soon. The statute of the IAJ did not foresee such catastrophic events as the COVID-19 pandemic, nor was it prepared at a time when meetings might be thought to occur by such electronic means as video conferencing. The fact is that our statute requires us to have a meeting this year at which elections are supposed to be held. Unfortunately, that cannot occur and after discussion and reflection the Presidency Committee has decided to continue in its present form until Central Council is able to reconvene in 2021. We envisage that it may require Central Council to ratify the prolongation of the members of the Presidency Committee between that period from when the elections ought to have taken place to the time at which the new elections do take place. We are mindful of the undesirability of the Presidency Committee prolonged beyond the two years envisaged by the regular election cycle but are sure that you will understand why the Presidency Committee has unanimously agreed to proceed on that basis during the current circumstances.
The current circumstances are no doubt causing many tensions and difficulties within many of your jurisdictions. The Rule of Law and the Independence of the Judiciary in each country will undoubtedly be tested in many ways during this period. It is important that we undertake a full and comprehensive discussion about the issues of the Rule of Law and of the Independence of the Judiciary in the context of a pandemic. An important commencement to that discussion has been the article by First Vice President Jose Igreja Matos to which I referred in my last letter to you and which you can read on the IAJ website. The extent and the complexity of the difficulties and strains are likely to be well beyond our ordinary imagination. I will write to the Presidents of the four Study Commissions requesting that they give consideration to a coordinated study of the impact and responses to such events as the pandemic to the Independence of the Judiciary and the Rule of Law. Some solutions to the work of Judges in the course of a pandemic may create unexpected risks and tensions. Fundamental institutions such as trial by jury will face particular challenges as will the incarceration in prisons where the potential of contracting the COVID-19 virus raises its own particular and difficult issues. The effective conduct of trials by videolink keeps some doors open but at costs to fairness and justice in some jurisdictions where physical presence when evidence is tested is seemed to be particularly important. The difficulties of movement of judicial officers and their staff make the work of Judges difficult in so many different ways that need to be recorded and understood. It will not just be a matter of taking more time to do things but may include not being able to test adequately things that need testing or get access to things for which access is needed.
In all this, and more, there are the needs of those for whom the system of justice, the Independency of the Judiciary, and the Rule of Law are all necessary. There will be enormous pressures for litigants needing resolution of their cases, individuals to be protected from abuse, and others in need of relief in many different ways.
The IAJ, through you, is well placed to identify, record and document those stresses in these times. These are not happy times but they do provide us with an opportunity to evaluate some fundamental aspects which we hold to be essential to a well ordered and free community.
I hope that my next communication to you may be more positive than this one has been. Do please rest assured that the members of the Presidency Committee are in constant contact with each other and are working to ensure that your association will be as strong after the pandemic as it was before.
Yours faithfully,
The Hon G T Pagone QC
President of the International Association of Judges