Workshop on Judicial Ethics for the Judiciary of South Sudan

After receiving an overwhelmingly positive response on a previous workshop, the Max Planck Foundation, in cooperation with the Judiciary of South Sudan, recently conducted a second three-day workshop on ‘Judicial Ethics’ for another select group of Justices and Judges in Juba, South Sudan.

The workshop, which was facilitated by the Foundation’s experts from 20-22 February 2023, was officially opened by the Chief Justice of South Sudan, Rt. Hon. Justice Chan Reec Madut, in the presence of Mr Dionyz Hochel, Head of Political, Press and Information Section of the European Union Delegation to South Sudan; Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch, Deputy Chairperson of the Judicial Reform Committee of South Sudan; Justice Dr Benjamin Baak Deng, Director of Learning and Training for the Judiciary of South Sudan and one of the Managing Directors and Head of the South Sudan Projects of the Max Planck Foundation. The workshop was attended by over 30 Judges and Justices coming from the various states of South Sudan.

On the first workshop day, the Foundation’s experts engaged with the Justices and Judges on the definition, core principles and foundations of judicial ethics, followed by a detailed review of South Sudan’s existing legal framework on judicial ethics. The workshop sessions thereafter focused on the six Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct from comparative and South Sudanese perspectives. On the third and last day of the workshop, the participants were presented with various case studies, which they vividly discussed based on their understanding of the previous days’ sessions. Throughout the workshop the participants actively shared their practical experiences and challenges in their daily work as Justices and Judges of South Sudan.

The workshop took place within the framework of the Max Planck Foundation’s project Supporting Constitution-Making, Legal Harmonisation and Judicial Reform in South Sudan, which is generously funded by the European Union.