Chief Justice of the OECS Sir Dennis The International Criminal Tri- Byron, President of CJEI (Fellow bunal for Rwanda was appointed by 1997), left St. Lucia on June 7, 2004 the United Nations to try cases of to take up an appointment as a Per- genocide in the African country. The manent Judge of the International Tribunal issued its first indictment in Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, November 1995. Since then, it has which operates from Arusha, Tanza- made steady progress towards the nia. fulfillment of its mandate and has In 1990, Sir Dennis was ap- made a notable contribution to the pointed to the Court of Appeal of the development of international crimi- Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. nal justice. Before that he served as a High Those convicted included Jean Court Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Kambanda, the Prime Minister of Supreme Court in Antigua, Montser- Rwanda during the genocide, who rat, Dominica and St. Lucia from became the first Head of Govern- 1982. Sir Dennis was acting Chief ment to be indicted and convicted Justice of the Supreme Court of CJEI President Honourable Chief of genocide. Fourteen Ministers of Grenada in 1986 and presided over Justice Sir Dennis Byron the 1994 Interim Government in the Maurice Bishop murder trial. Rwanda are also in the Tribunal’s In the past decade, Sir Dennis’ career has at- custody as well as senior military commanders, tracted international recognition. He was a mem- high-ranking central and regional government offi- ber of a team of prominent jurists selected by the cials, prominent businessmen, church leaders, International Bar Association to investigate and journalists, intellectuals and other influential fig- report on issues affecting the independence of the ures. judiciary in Zimbabwe. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan In March 1999, he was invited by the Com- has expressed the hope that the work of the Tribu- monwealth of Learning to address The Pan Com- nal will contribute to the long-term process of na- monwealth Forum on Open Learning held in tional reconciliation in Rwanda. Brunei on the subject of Distance Learning in Judi- Last week, members of the Judiciary and staff cial Education. Later the same year, he was ap- of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court honoured pointed Coordinator of the Conference of Com- Sir Dennis for the work he had accomplished in monwealth Chief Justices at the 12th Common- reforming the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court wealth Law Conference held in Malaysia. since his appointment as Chief Justice. His appointment to the International Criminal Sir Dennis was knighted by the Queen four Tribunal for Rwanda, fulfills a life-long dream of years ago. Last November he was elected as an serving in the African continent, Sir Dennis said Honorary Bencher of the Society of Inner before leaving the region. Temple. In This Issue News & Notes………...……….…..2 “Knowledge Management” By Honourable Justice Madan Message from the Chair…...…...4 B. Lokur…………..…………..….10 In Memoriam……………………...5 Calendar of Events………….….16 Second Biennial Meeting of In Your Opinion…………...…..18 Judicial Educators…………….....6 Profiles……………………………...8 Resources for Judges…………….9 Official Newsletter of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute CJEI Report June 2004 Page 2 ♦ In August last year the Honourable Chief Justice Sir Arnold Amet retired ♦ The Honourable Justice David from the bench after serving nearly 20 Wangutusi (CJEI, years as a Judge of the PNG Supreme & 1999) has just been appointed to head the National Courts. As a result, the former newly established Judicial College as Di- Honourable Deputy Chief Justice Sir rector. Mari Kapi (CJEI, 1995) was appointed as The Uganda Judicial College was the new Chief Justice of the Supreme & established in January 2004 in Kampala. Initially the College will handle the train- ♦ Mr. Goemekgabo L. National Courts. Sir Mari served as Dep- uty Chief Justice since April 1982. His ing of Ugandan judicial and non-judicial Tobogo-Maruping (CJEI, staff. In the future the College hopes to 2000) has become Registrar at new ten-year appointment began in Au- expand training to other legal Officers in the Industrial Court of Botswana (Labour gust 2003. the Ministry of Justice Crown Counsel, Court). As a result he will attend this Advocates, Prosecutors and eventually year’s annual ILO meeting in Geneva, train Officers from the Africa region in Switzerland for 3 weeks starting on 30 judicial disciplines. May, 2004. Mr. Tobogo-Maruping is also proud ♦ May 9-13, 2004, the Honourable to announce the birth of his new son, Judge Sandra Oxner, Chairperson of Rotlhe, which means “we are all CJEI, attended the Women Judges Confer- together now.” This is his fifth child. ence in Entebbe, Uganda. She presented a paper during a session on judicial integrity. ♦ On June 1, 2004 the Honourable Jus- The conference was hosted by the Interna- tice Ramesh Chandra Lahoti assumed tional Association of Women Judges. the office of The Chief Justice of India. Known for his humane approach to cases, ♦ Last December the Honourable Jus- he is India’s 35th Chief Justice. He suc- tice Joseph Nyamihana Mulenga (CJEI, ceeded Chief Justice S. Rajendra Babu. 2002) became the Acting President of the East African Court of Justice in Arusha, ♦ The Honourable Justice Ivor Archie Tanzania. (CJEI, 2003) has been elevated to the Court of Appeal in Trinidad and Tobago Please send us news for our next edition of “News and Notes” effective April 2004. See contact information on the last page Malta Judicial Studies Committee Launched The Judicial Studies Committee (JSC) was officially launched during a ceremony held on the l7th of October, 2003. Besides the members of the Maltese Judiciary, present for the occasion were the Minister of Justice and Home Affairs, and various members of the diplomatic corps. The keynote speaker was H.H. Judge William Rose, the Director of Studies of the Judicial Studies Board of England and Wales. Since that date, the JSC has held two seminars. The first was held on the February 26-28, 2004 on the theme "Advancing Judi- cial Approaches to Mediation in Civil and Commercial Matters". The keynote speakers were Mr. M. Appel from the U.S.A., Mr. J. Claus from the Council of Europe, Honourable Judge D. Cooke (U.K.), Honourable Judges M.A. Spliet and H. Steenberghe (The Neth- erlands) and Honourable Judge A. Zalar (Slovenia). The second seminar was held between the March 8-9, 2004 in collaboration with The Lord Slynn of Hedley European Law Foundation. The theme was "Applying E.U. Law in Malta". The keynote speakers were Lord Slynn of Hedley, Mr. David Vaughan CBE,Q.C. and Mr. David Lloyd Jones Q.C. As Malta became a member of the European Union on May 1, 2004, the JSC is planning to organize a follow-up seminar on EU Law next October under the auspices of the Lord Slynn Foundation. CJEI is in frequent correspondence with the Malta Judicial Studies Committee and looks forward to their participation in CJEI. CJEI Report June 2004 Page 3 compatible and pave the ♦ Upon the secondment of Chief Justice way for electronic filing in Sir Dennis Byron to Arusha, the Honour- the future. able Justice Adrian Saunders (CJEI, Some of the new provisions specifi- 1998) became Acting Chief Justice for by Honourable Jus- cally aimed at improving access to justice OECS. tice Neil Buckley (CJEI, 1999), Fam- include: ily Court of Austra- The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court ♦ lia, 4th June 2004 ♦ Pre-action procedures (ECSC) has embarked upon a Criminal Di- (Rule 1.05 and Schedule 1) vision Pilot project in St. Lucia. The project is in response to a criminal justice system The pre-action procedures provide that that has been for many years beset with un- On March 29, 2004, the Family Court of before starting a case, parties are re- acceptable delays in the hearing of both Australia introduced new Rules of Court quired to attempt to resolve their dispute. summary and indictable cases. The goals of which will significantly improve access to This is intended to discourage a combat- the project are to modernize trial court infra- justice in the family law jurisdiction in Aus- ive adversarial approach, which can and structure, improve access to justice, upgrade tralia. does increase costs. Parties are encour- aged to cooperate, make appropriate dis- the delivery of justice, and strengthen the Apart from obvious practical improve- closure, behave reasonably, and make an rule of law. The Criminal Division project is ments such as the use of easily under- early offer of settlement and negotiate being headed by retired Justice of Appeal stood words and the reduction in the sensibly to try to avoid litigation. Even if Honourable Albert Redhead. The pilot is number of chapters from 41 to 25 and litigation is subsequently necessary, par- scheduled to run for a period of two periods the number of forms from 84 to 25, the ties will benefit from following the pre- after which time it is the intention to repli- Family Law Rules 2004 set out all of the action procedures because it will have cate it in the other territories that comprise court’s existing practice, procedure and helped to clarify what is actually in dis- the ECSC. case management principles in a better way and introduce a number of innovative pute. provisions relating to areas such as ex- ♦ Expert evidence (Part 15.5) pert witnesses and disclosure. There is a significant change to the rules The Rules adopt a number of modern about expert witnesses aimed at control- drafting techniques such that ling unnecessary cost and delay and ♦ the audience is told the purpose of eliminating problems of a lack of objectiv- rules of court and is given an insight into ity of some experts.