First workshop for the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal of South Sudan
From 08 – 10 October 2019, the Max Planck Foundation, in collaboration with the Judiciary of South Sudan, delivered the first workshop for the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal in a project designed to strengthen the institutional access to justice capabilities of the courts of South Sudan. The project “Supporting Institutional Access to Justice in South Sudan“, is generously funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and aims at enhancing the capacity of members of the South Sudanese Judiciary, with respect to access to justice.
The three-day workshop was officially opened by the Chief Justice of South Sudan and President of the Supreme Court, HE Chan Reec Madut, a representative of the German Embassy in South Sudan, Ms Beate Müller-Grunewald and a representative from the Foundation. The primary audience of the workshop, held in Juba, were the Justices of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal of South Sudan. Additionally, upon invitation by the Judiciary, a number of Judges from the High Courts of South Sudan were in attendance.
The workshop entitled ‘Judicial Precedent by Superior Courts in Common Law Systems’ was delivered by the Foundation’s South Sudan team and was aimed at broadening the technical skills of the superior court judges in making judicial precedents. The workshop programme addressed a range of topics including an introduction session to the development and application of the common law system, judicial precedent as a source of law, the application of foreign precedents and the common law considerations in constitutional and statutory interpretation.
The Director of Training at the South Sudan Judiciary, Justice Benjamin Baak Deng, expressed his appreciation at the end for an informative workshop that would assist the judges in their day-to-day work. He also reiterated the Judiciary’s gratitude to the German Federal Foreign Office for its continued support for the Judiciary of South Sudan.