Workshop on Constitutional Adjudication Conducted for the Justices of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal of South Sudan

The Foundation continues rule of law training with superior courts

From 27-29 January 2020, the Max Planck Foundation in collaboration with the Judiciary of South Sudan delivered a workshop entitled “Constitutional Adjudication and Constitutionality of Laws” for the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal. The three-day workshop was officially opened by the Chief Justice of South Sudan and President of the Supreme Court, HE Chan Reec Madut, the Director of Training at the Judiciary, Justice Benjamin Baak Deng 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. Among them were three Court of Appeal Justices, usually based in Greater Bahr el Ghazal. Additionally, upon invitation by the Judiciary, a number of Judges from the High Courts of South Sudan were also in attendance.

The workshop sessions provided a comprehensive introduction to constitutional law principles of constitutional adjudication and specifically, constitutional review. The programme addressed a range of topics including models of constitutional adjudication and review, structural and substantive approaches to constitutional review, and constitutional review remedies. Discussions also examined the practice of constitutional review in South Sudan and from a comparative regional perspective. On the final day, participants were also engaged in a practical case study discussion with the aim of enhancing their knowledge on the topics discussed, while enabling them to better understand the legal and practical challenges of exercising one of the most critical mandates for apex courts.

The leadership of the Judiciary ended the event by expressing their gratitude for a timely and informative workshop that would assist the judges in their daily work.

The workshop, funded by the European Union, continues the implementation of the training component of the project: Strengthening the Rule of Law in South Sudan.