By: Jeffery A. Apperson, President, IACA and Chief Clerk, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky (USA)

In 2003, a group of court administrators, court administration association presidents,  and other high court officials[i], agreed to establish the International Association for Court Administration (IACA) with the following mission:

1. To promote professional court administration and management in emerging democracies and other countries pursuing the rule of law;  
2. To sponsor international conferences, forums, and education and training programs on court administration and management;  
3. To serve as a resource for judges, court administrators and managers, and other government officials in search of ways to evaluate and improve court and justice systems.

In a broader sense, the goals of the Association are to assist in the global effort of developing a system of justice wherein common international professional standards are established based on the experience of best practices in court governance worldwide; in essence, to foster the ability of legal systems to execute laws that support the protection of rights equally, and promote economic order among nations.  Benito Juarez, former president of the Republic of Mexico, made a statement that reflects the spirit of this new organization:

“Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.”

Our journey to this point has been one of commitment to our goals with a passion exhibited by volunteered time and travel without reimbursement. The benefit, however, has far outweighed the cost.

In order to partly accomplish our mission’s goals, we have conducted four international conferences whose agendas were focused on effective court management techniques.  The first was in Lyublyana, Slovenia, with the support of President Testen and the Supreme Court of Slovenia, as well as now Minister of Justice Ales Zalar and Tina Brecelj.  Approximately 100 court officials representing 24 countries attended the first conference.  By a unanimous vote, we agreed to formally establish the IACA.  Markus Zimmer assumed the role of President, and will step down at the end of 2009.  The IACA was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Kentucky (USA) soon thereafter.  The IACA formed an Executive Board with a Vice-President for each of seven world regions, an Advisory Council, chaired by Judge Paul Magnuson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, and an Executive Director, Sheryl Loesch.

After Lyublyana, we established a website administrator position, filled by Linda Wade-Bahr, and created a  website. The site address is www.iaca.ws.

Our second conference was in Verona, Italy in 2006, and was co-sponsored by the European Union of Rechtsfleger and Federal Court of Verona. We had 140 attendees. At the third conference in Dublin, Ireland, co-sponsored by the Irish Courts Service and Supreme Court, attendance increased to 220 delegates.  Our fourth conference, just completed, was in Istanbul, Turkey and was co-sponsored by the Turkish Ministry of Justice.  Attendance increased to 250 participant representing 47 countries.

Our conferences have been well attended because of the desire to compare court administration models and meet colleagues, as well as to explore beautiful and historic venues.  We now have a network of hundreds of court officials and have facilitated great changes in approaches to problem solving and best practices.

In addition to conferences, the IACA created The International Journal for Court Administration with Professor Philip Langbroek, of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands as the Managing Editor.  Three editions of the Journal have been published, the most recent in September 2009.  The publications are electronic and maintained on our website.

We continue our networking efforts with such fine institutions as the Peace Institute, the International Judicial Academy, the European Institute for Public Administration and several other organizations.  In addition, the IACA has been supported by the International Judicial Relations Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, USAID, and rule of law contractors.

We are planning conferences in Trinidad for the Western Hemisphere and Jakarta for Southeast Asia in 2010.  Our next worldwide conference will be held in The Hague in 2011.

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[i] The Founders included at that time: Collins Ijoma, President of the National Association of Court Management; Wayne Wolfe, President of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Clerks; Jeff Apperson, President of the Federal Court Clerks Association; Markus Zimmer, Clerk, U.S. District Court, Utah; and Ralph Deloach, Clerk, U.S. District Court, Kansas.

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