International Judicial Monitor
Published by the International Judicial Academy, Washington, D.C., with assistance from the
American Society of International Law

Spring 2011 Issue

 

 

 

 

 

Global Judicial Dialogue

 

The International Association of Judges

Robert A. BlairBy: Robert A. Blair, Ontario Court of Appeal, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The International Association of Judges (IAJ) is a non-political international organization whose members are the national associations or representative groups of judges from around the world.  The Canadian Superior Courts Judges Association and the Federal Judges Association of the United States are active members (individual judges are not members of the IAJ).

The IAJ was founded in Salzburg, Austria, in 1953, in response to a need to assist rebuilding judiciaries in European countries devastated by the effects of World War II.  Its main aim then and now is to enhance and safeguard judicial independence as an essential requirement of the judicial function and as a guarantee of human rights and freedoms around the globe.  (For more information on the IAJ generally, see its website: www.iaj-uim.org.)

The IAJ currently has 74 member associations or representative groups from five continents, clustered into four Regional Groups: the European Association (42 countries); the Iberoamerican Group (14 countries); the African Group (12 countries); and the Asian, North American and Oceanic Group (ANAO – 10 countries).  The Canadian and American associations are members of the ANAO Group (along with an eclectic group of other member associations, including Australia, Puerto Rico, Japan, Taiwan, Bermuda, Kazakstan, Mongolia and Mexico).  The Hon. Joanna Seybert, a federal judge of the United States District Court (Eastern District of New York) has for the past six years been the president of the ANAO Group and a vice-president of the IAJ.  The writer has followed her in those capacities since the last annual meeting of the Association in Senegal, in November, 2010.

In recognition of its role in support of judicial independence internationally, the IAJ has been granted observer status at the United Nations and with the Council of Europe, and maintains UN representation in that respect in New York, the Hague and Vienna.   Judge Seybert and the Hon. Louise Mailhot, a retired justice of the Quebec Court of Appeal, are the IAJ delegates to the U.N. in New York. 

In addition to its role in enhancing and supporting judicial independence globally, the IAJ has educational and cross-cultural exchange goals as well.  These goals are addressed through the work of four Study Commissions:  Commission 1 (Judicial Administration and Status of the Judiciary); Commission 2 (Civil Law and Procedure on an International and Comparative Basis); Commission 3 (Criminal Law and Procedure on an International and Comparative Basis); and Commission 4 (Public law and Social Law).  Each Study Commission chooses a topic for discussion at the IAJ’s annual meeting and a questionnaire is prepared and circulated among the member associations in advance for comment.  The responses are then collated and discussed with great interest and animation by the representatives from perhaps 40 countries in each Commission at the three-day meetings of the Study Commissions held during the Association’s annual meetings.  Needless to say, there are many differing views from the various delegates – made all the more interesting by the divide between those countries rooted in the common law and civil code traditions.

For example, the First Study Commission has spent the past two sessions grappling with ways to identify and classify the criteria (subjective and objective) by reference to which the independence of the judiciary may be assessed.  In North America, we might have little difficulty with that question, but, on reflection, it will come as no surprise that there are differing perspectives on it around the world, particularly in the developing nations.  This is of some significance for membership in the IAJ, since a full member with voting rights must show that its national association has judicial independence and that the judiciary in its country is independent, whereas temporary membership – called “extraordinary” membership, without voting rights – only requires that the national association be “striving for judicial independence”.  Not surprisingly, this spectrum invites a certain elasticity of interpretation, and has been the subject of considerable study and passionate debate at both the First Study Commission sessions and generally at the IAJ meetings.

Other topics that have been studied include the following:

Civil Issues Respecting the Protection of Privacy (with Particular Focus on Such Matters as Affected by the Internet) – Second Study Commission, 2010

Human Trafficking – Third Study Commission, 2010

The Rights of Workers in Case of a Shutdown of the Enterprise, Whatever are the Causes – Fourth Study Commission, 2007

The topics discussed by the four Study Commissions over a period of about 30 years, and the conclusions developed, may be reviewed on the Association website, listed above.  The Hon. Charles Simpson III, a federal judge for the United States District Court of the the Western District of Kentucky, is a vice-president of the Third Study Commission.  The Hon. Paul Magnuson, a former Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota – and a director of the International Judicial Academy – has been an active participant in the Second Study Commission.

The Central Council of the IAJ is its governing body.  It meets three times during each annual conference to discuss matters of business; to hear reports from the Regional Groups, the UN Representatives, the Study Commissions, the President and the Secretary-General; to approve the Association’s budget; and to deal with matters of general concern to members, including applications for new membership and matters concerning judicial independence around the world.  Central Council meetings are often the occasion of passionate and eloquent debate on numerous topics that touch the interest of judges around the world – particularly the interests, and the need for support, of the judiciary in developing nations.  Not always is there agreement, but, in the end, there is a strong sense of collegiality, cross-cultural friendship, and understanding.

The IAJ is thus an important judicial organization internationally.


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© 2011 – The International Judicial Academy
with assistance from the American Society of International Law.

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