At Home Abroad: Friendship First by Nadeau Joseph;

Author:Nadeau, Joseph;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2019-03-29T00:00:00+00:00

That sentiment was expressed over and over in my early work with judges from Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics. In Albania, I met the new president of the Parliament who had been imprisoned for five years by the previous administration for, according to him, expressing his support for democratic reform, and for his ability to speak English. I said it was an honor to meet him and he said the honor was his that we would come to the aid of his country.

I was in Albania as an American representative, with judges from France and the Netherlands, on a Council of Europe project, working with members of the three branches of the Albanian government to enact legislation establishing a school for the education of judges and prosecutors, modeled after France’s Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature. Interestingly, the only female participating in the process was a judge who was to be named Director of the school when it was established. She was very deferential to the other officials during our discussions, leaving me with the impression that was the reason for her selection.

The Chief Justice of Albania was a thinker and a reformer. He believed in the importance of an independent judiciary, the separation of powers, the merit selection of judges, and encouraged continuing judicial education. He was a delight to work with and stayed focused, even though the other branches seemed determined to limit his role in the education process.

As an indication of the fragility of some of these emerging democracies, after adoption of the legislation establishing the school and adoption of a new constitution, the Chief Justice of Albania was told by the President to resign. He asked me to review the constitution and give him my opinion on whether he could be removed. I told him it was clear to me that the constitutional provisions relating to the court grandfathered sitting justices, and the president did not have the authority to remove him. When he refused to resign, he was forcefully removed from office by armed military. So much for early independence. Not unexpectedly, USAID’s website reports that since 1992, U.S. aid has helped Albania move from the most isolated and repressive communist state in Europe toward a democracy with a market-oriented economy.

In contrast to the forcible ouster of the Albanian Chief Justice, this year, the Accountability and Justice Commission of Iraq attempted to remove Chief Justice Medhat from office. Purportedly for ties to the former regime. The attempt, although obviously political, was somewhat surprising, as it was well known that the Chief Justice had been in the Iraqi judiciary since 1960. The Chief Justice was reinstated peaceably by an appellate court.

In June 2006, I travelled to Amman, Jordan to take part in the first conference on the Establishment of the Arab Center for Judicial and Legal Studies for 15 Middle Eastern Countries. I gave a presentation on Judicial Conduct and Management of Cases, and participated on panels discussing Media, Judicial Performance, and Ethics.

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