FJC Programs for Foreign Judicial Officials, 2003

PROGRAMS FOR FOREIGN JUDICIAL OFFICIALS
The Center’s statute directs it to work with other organizations to provide information about judicial administration to representatives of foreign judiciaries and to gather information about the administration of justice in other countries that may assist the Center’s education and research functions. The Center provides brieﬁngs, information, publications, and technical assistance to foreign judiciaries, but does not pay travel or other direct costs of foreign judicial education programs.

In 2003, the Center

coordinated 54 brieﬁngs for more than 370 foreign judges, court ofﬁcials, and scholars from 118 different countries;
arranged a four-day program for a delegation from the Supreme Court of Panama on issues related to the work of a court of ultimate appeal;
developed a week-long seminar on distance education for representatives of the Russian Academy of Justice, the judicial training center for the Russian Federation;
facilitated a program on judicial ethics for a group of judges from Uzbekistan.

The Center hosted six visiting foreign judicial fellows, for whom it provides ofﬁce space, use of a computer, access to Center resources and staff, and guidance in preparing research projects. Fellows in 2003 included judges from Uganda and Israel, who studied court-annexed mediation programs, a judge from South Korea who conducted research in patent litigation, a judge from Japan who studied settlement conferences under Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and judicial researchers from Italy and China.

Center staff provided technical assistance abroad in Kosovo, Mexico, Russia, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovenia, Thailand, and Turkey. Funding for these projects was provided by U.S. government agencies and international organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme.