The Foundation provides training to Administrative Staff of Zarqa Courts in Jordan on Codes of Conduct for Professionals in Judicial Administration

Foundation experts delivered workshops to build the capacity of court clerks and administrative staff of the Zarqa courts in Jordan, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice of Jordan, the Judicial Council in Jordan, and the First Instance Courts of Zarqa

The Foundation delivered a workshop for administrative court staff and court clerks on 20 February 2022 in the Zarqa Courts. The workshop was formally inaugurated by HE Judge Ahmed al-Shara’a, President of the Courts of First Instance of Zarqa and the Head of Project at the Max Planck Foundation.

The focus of the workshop included comparative analysis of Courts that had specific codes of conduct for court administrative staff and others which had a general code of conduct for all civil service employees and included a comparison of the two models and examples of codes of conduct from each.

Discussions focused on the general roles of court administration staff and assessments of whether a general code of conduct was sufficient for administrative staff and court clerks or whether the nature of the role required a more specific and tailored code of conduct for those working in judicial administration. Other topics included managing, regulating and resolution of conflicts, post employment restrictions and a practical exercise on best practices and guiding principles for good court administration.

The practical exercises strengthened participants’ understanding of the concepts discussed and their practical application, as well as highlighting gaps in internal policies and procedural regulations that could be further enhanced, for example, in a special code of conduct for court administrative staff.

The workshop is a part of the project component to build the capacity of administrative staff and court clerks of the Courts in Balqa and Zarqa Governorates in Jordan, within the scope of the Foundation’s project Strengthening Legislative Compliance and Constitutional Interpretation in Jordan: for Judges of the Ordinary Courts, the Constitutional Court and the Bureau of Legislation and Opinion, supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.