EDUCATING JUDGES

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• EDUCATING JUDGES
• Some Reflections
• on Principle and Practice
• Livingston Armytage
• Centre for Judicial Studies

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• Lawyers dont become good judges by the wave
  of a magic wand. Not even the best lawyers DW
  Catlin, 1986

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EDUCATING JUDGES

• Judicial education develops judges competence
• It improves the quality of justice and the
  performance of courts
• It is an important new and evolving discipline
• Each jurisdiction develops its own approach to
  meet its unique needs
• We are all still learning by gaining and sharing
  experience

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JUDGES AS LEARNERS

• Application of educational principles
• Survey of international practice
• US, France, UK, Australia, Mongolia, Pakistan,
  Philippines
• Challenges, and lessons learned
• Model guidelines
• Practical tools

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PRECEPTS OF JUDICIAL EDUCATION

• Principles of adult learning form the foundations
  for any program of continuing judicial education
• Judges are professionals by training, career
  practice, and self-image
• Learning needs, practices, preferences and
  context of judges are distinctive

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EDUCATIONAL MODELING

• Educational theory pedagogy
• humanism life understandingbehaviourism
  practical skills
• developmental theory intellectual/moral
  valuescognitive psychology how people learn
• Adult learning - andragogy
• Professional development
• Model of judicial learning

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ADULT LEARNING

• Judges epitomise adult learners
• Self-directed
• Problem-orientation
• Purposive immediacy of application
• Preference to build on personal experience
• Practical rather than theoretical
• Skills rather than information-focused

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• Judges are professionals by training, career
  practice, and self-image
• Defined body of knowledge and practice
• We know what we want to learn
• Career-related
• Functional to get a job done
• Specific and highly focused
• Most active self-managed learners

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JUDGES ASDISTINCTIVE LEARNERS

• Independence
• Formative societal position and role
• Learning preferences and practices
• seniority, prior experience, self-reliance
• Reasons to participate
• competence, collegial interaction, professional
  perspective
• Functional needs
• legal/judicial knowledge, skills,
  attitudes/values

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MODEL OF JUDICIAL LEARNING

• Bench-related performance improvement
• Building skills/values on information base
• its not just about teaching new judges the law
• Facilitation of self-directed learning and
  critical self-reflection
• Focus on practicality and relevance
• Active problem-solving process

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PROCESS

• Strategy
• Needs
• Services
• Curriculum
• Faculty
• Evaluation

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SURVEY OF PRACTICE- Challenges

• Effective partnership with the executive
• Judicial leadership, ownership and engagement
• Sustainability and adequate recourses
• Educationally-sound programs
• Integration with broader sector-wide strategies
• Rigorous monitoring and evaluation

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GUIDELINES

• Court-owned and judge-led
• Governance structure
• Strategic and activity plans
• Civil society role
• Educationally-sound curriculum
• Train-the-trainer

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TRAINING OF TRAINERS

• Program management
• Curriculum development
• Presentation skills
• Distance learning
• Evaluation

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JUDICIAL TRAINING INVENTORY

• Substantive law and court procedure
• To be assessed depending on the prior training,
  experience and duties of judges
• Criminal law and procedure
• Civil law and procedure
• Judicial skills
• how to conduct a hearing trial
• control of courtroom
• note-taking
• legal research
• admitting evidence
• statutory interpretation
• judgment writing and giving reasons
• principled and uniform sentencing
• administering natural justice, due process and
  fair trial
• protecting human rights and civil liberties
• resolving disputes and alternative dispute
  resolution (ADR)
• Judicial management and administration skills
• case management
• administering courts filings, fixtures, hearing
  lists and queuing

• Judicial disposition social context - outlook,
  attitude and values
• judicial role, powers and responsibilities
• judicial independence, impartiality, integrity
  and outlook
• judicial review
• judicial conduct and ethics
• gender/race equality
• Generic management and administrative skills
• Communication skills written and oral
• Time management
• Computer skills
• Coaching and mentoring
• Inter-disciplinary
• To be assessed depending on the prior training,
  experience and duties of judges
• Forensic scientific evidence psychiatry and
  pathology in criminal prosecutions
• Financial accounting in complex commercial
  disputes
• Medico-legal fundamentals in injury cases.

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CURRICULUM MATRIX
CONTENT PITCH SUBSTANTIVE LAW COURT PROCEDURE JUDICIAL SKILLS ETHICS CONDUCT JUDICIAL ADMIN MANAGEMENT INTER DISCIPLINARY
INDUCTION ORIENTATION
UPDATE CHANGE
NETWORKING PROBLEM SOLVING
SPECIALIST ADVANCED
REFRESHER
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TRAINERS HANDBOOK

• Learning objectives
• Learning and training theory
• Characteristics of adult learners
• Learning styles
• Learning by doing
• Four steps of learning
• Planning your session
• Presentations techniques
• Traditional techniques
• Workshop facilitation techniques

• Large groups methods
• Small groups
• Papers, handouts and materials
• Some golden rules
• Questions
• Hearing and listening
• Non-verbal communication
• Presentation aids
• Common problems for presenters