The Foreign Service Journal, March 2005

British government’s Department for International Development (given via the International Law Assistance Consortium, based in Sweden), as well as some financial assistance from the Czech govern- ment. The institute developed the course, titled “Judging in a Democratic Society,” with the par- ticipation of an international group of experts, as part of a project to bring the rule of law to countries in transition. It emphasizes the skills and practices necessary for a court system to be accessi- ble, efficient and fair. The course has been given many times, in several languages, to judges from over 20 coun- tries. The version of the course for Iraqis adds to the core curriculum materials unique to that region and its legal history. The presentations and all written materials are translated into Arabic. The two-week course is primarily participatory, although it combines some lecture-based information sharing and comparative best-practices presentations. It includes sessions on judicial ethics, relations with other branches of government, public access to the courts and judicial independence. As the Iraqi judges noted, the previous legal system primarily catered to the needs of a dictator. Yet because the country’s legal system was based on French and Egyptian law, with a significant British legal influence as well, there was a strong foundation to work from in modifying their legal framework. The faculty consisted of five dedicated professionals who each gave two weeks of their valuable time, pro bono. They were: Justice Robert Utter, a distinguished former chief justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, who was the designated “team leader;” Munter al Fadhal, an exiled Iraqi lawyer from Sweden, who is also a human rights specialist; Justice Ernst Markel, an Austrian Supreme Court justice; Judge Judith Chirlin, from the Los Angeles Superior Court; and Dr. Markus Zimmer, a federal court administrator from the state of Utah. In September 2004, an initial group of 50 Iraqi judges (personally selected by the Iraqi Chief Justice, Madhat Al-Mahmood) landed in Prague for the two-week train- ing course on basic principles of democratic justice. The course had been canceled twice because the participants’ safe depar- ture from Iraq could not be guaran- teed, so it was a great relief when they finally arrived. (In November, CEELI trained the second group of 47 Iraqi judges, and during 2005 it will train an additional 100 Iraqi judges.) It is worth noting that other groups of Iraqi judges have attended similar conferences on the role of the judicia- ry. For example, in May 2004, 28 Iraqi judges and Ministry of Justice officials traveled to The Hague for a two-day conference on the rule of law with their international counterparts, including U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy; the most senior judge in Britain; and judges attached to international tribunals based in The Hague. Conference participants discussed the impor- tance of the rule of law and the role of the judiciary in securing fundamental rights. The conference was orga- nized by the Coalition Provisional Authority’s Ministry of Justice in Baghdad, along with the U.S. embassy in The Hague. The judges in our group came from all parts of Iraq, from now-household names like Fallujah and Basra, and from less familiar places like Karrada or Diyalla. Some were victims of Saddam Hussein’s regime, others were related to individuals who were tortured and murdered by Hussein, and still others were survivors of post- Saddam Hussein assassination attempts. There was even one judge whose bodyguards were killed while pro- tecting him from assault. Because of security concerns, news of the seminar was kept quiet. Nevertheless, the Iraqis were delight- ed to be visited by some important dignitaries over the course of the two weeks. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage assured them that the United States, Great Britain and the Czech Republic would not rest until they were “seated on the bench, making just and wise decisions for the Iraqi people.” Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda addressed the distinguished group of Iraqi judges at their graduation ceremony, emphasizing what both Iraq and his country had in common: a transition from a totalitarian regime to a democracy. F O C U S 40 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 0 5 Despite what appeared to be insurmountable obstacles, somehow we bridged the barriers of our respective cultures and histories.