Introduction – Institutional life of the IAJ
The Central Council of the International Association of Judges held its 62nd annual meeting in Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan), with the co-operation of the Kazakh Association of Judges, on 16, 17 and 19 September, 2019. Besides the Presidency Committee and the Secretariat-General, 62 member associations were present (in attendance or by proxy), as well as delegates from observer countries and IAJ representatives before International Bodies and Institutions. President Pagone warmly thanked the hosting Association and submitted his report. The Assembly heard and discussed as well the reports by the Secretary-General and the Presidents of the four Regional Groups.
Two new member Associations were admitted by the Central Council: Lebanon and New Zealand. As far as the IAJ Consitution is concerned, the Assembly rejected two proposals for amendments concerning, respectively, the possibility to admit in the IAJ “regional associations or groups representing judges from the Caribbean and Pacific Islands” and the possibility to admit as affiliate members “international associations or representative groups of judges.”
A substantial reform was approved as to the monitoring procedure envisaged by article 13 of the Regulations. The new procedure for the regular monitoring of all member associations and the annexed questionnaire are now available in our web site in all IAJ official languages (Read the English version here). Very soon the Secretariat-General will contact the first group of 31 associations which have to comply with the new complex procedures approved by the Central Council in Nur-Sultan.
Reports by the Presidents of the Study-Commissions. Selection of the new subjects for 2020
President Pagone called on the Presidents of the four Study Commissions to report on the conclusions of the Commissions on their respective subjects:
4th Study Commission - Mrs. Julie Dutil: “Harassment, in a broad sense –moral and sexual– and its consequences on labour relations”
1st Study Commission - Mr. Walter Barone: “Social media and the judiciary: 1) how best to respond to unfair comments about judges made on social media; 2) use of social media by judges and courts: opportunity or danger”
2nd Study Commission - Mr. Thomas Cyr: “Problems, large and small, in the financing of litigation”
3rd Study Commission – Vice-President Mr. Dieter Freiburghaus: “The Media in Criminal Cases: Protecting the Integrity of the Proceedings and Communications with the Media”. The Presidents also proposed the subjects to be dealt with by the Study Commissions in 2020:
1st Study Commission: “Disciplinary proceedings and judicial independence”
2nd Study Commission: “How data protection rules are impacting on civil litigation”
3rd Study Commission: “Communication in criminal court rooms”
4th Study Commission: “Corruption in the workplace: How does it affect employees?”. The Central Council approved the conclusions as well as the proposed topics for 2020.
As usual, all documents of the four IAJ Study Commissions are available in our website. Visit the IAJ website
Creation of New Working Groups
The Central Council decided in Nur-Sultan to mandate the Presidency Committee to set up three different Working Groups. The first one is the Group which is statutorily charged to inquire into the replies to the questionnaires of the new Regular Monitoring Procedure, according to Article 13 of the IAJ Regulations. Its composition will be finalised during the meetings of the four Regional Groups (see above).
The second WG will study possible statutory changes on the rules of voting. Actually, the voting procedures in Kazakhstan showed that there was disagreement between common law and civil law countries in matter of interpretation, what should be avoided. The WG could limit its work to the voting only and it should be composed of more than one person speaking English but above all by people representing the two legal traditions. Honorary President Woratsch said that the Council of Honorary Presidents was just evaluating whether the Constitution needed some amendments, not only with reference to the voting system but also concerning the admission procedure and the sanctions for non-compliance with statutory duties. The composition and definition of tasks and working methods will be finalised during the next meeting of the PC in Verona, in June 2020.
The third WG is about the problem of offering assistance to individual judges who find themselves in difficult positions because of their role, keeping in mind that the IAJ cannot give legal assistance but may arrange some form of referral to pertinent contact points. This WG has already started working under the presidency of Sir Nicholas Blake (UK). 4. Pictures of the Event in Nur-Sultan A set of pictures taken during the different IAJ meetings in Nur-Sultan (september 2019) has been made available by our Kazach colleagues and are available here