Last week, Muhammad (the other YLIP intern) and I went to the Kyrgyz State Academy to give a guest lecture titled "Canada - a comparative legal system".
The students were all studying to receive their Masters of Law (LLM). Muhammad spoke about our internship, the Canadian Bar Association, and Global Affairs Canada. I spoke about the Canadian common law system, the different instances of court, civil and criminal cases, the timeline and steps of a court case, judicial independence etc etc etc.
I showed them photos of the Supreme Court of Canada and our Supreme Court Justices. They were so delighted when I told them that 4 out of 9 judges were female. (I should have added, why not 5 women and 4 men?) They wanted to know how long it had been this way.
They asked about corruption in the judicial system, how to combat it and whether there was corruption in Canada. I told them about our principle of judicial independence including the importance of having security of tenure. They were surprised to learn that our judges were appointed for life. Judges here in Kyrgyzstan are appointed for a 7 year term and then possibly extended depending on a number of factors. There is a lot of judicial turnover.
They were surprised that in Canada, it's the Queen who brings criminal cases against the accused. In Kyrgyzstan in certain cases, the perpetrator may coerce or intimidate the victim into dropping all criminal charges. Reports by NGOs have noted that this is common in instances of gender-based violence including bride kidnapping.
They were curious about jury trials and their potential to effect judicial corruption. A student asked whether a psychologist is hired to study the jury to try to predict their verdict. I happily told her that the lawyer plays this role. During a trial, I will watch the jury very closely to try to gather any non-verbal clues because they are not allowed to speak to you.
Speaking at the Academy has been one of my highlights so far! The students were smart and engaging. It gave me such pride to speak about the Canadian legal system. I was proud to be a litigator and grateful to have been to court enough to be able to speak about my experiences. I was proud that women are (almost) equally represented in our highest court. But also, it was a chance for me to reflect on the principles of the rule of law. Where judges have no security of tenure and no financial security, there is no trust in the judiciary. Without judicial independence, the rule of law does not exist. The rule of law is not so common in all parts of the world. A lot of people and organizations are working very hard to implement systems and trainings in order to build a fair and transparent judicial system.
Thanks for having us. Thank you Nargiza and Aisul for organizing and I'm looking forward to our next meeting!
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