IBA Annual Conference Sydney 2017
8 Oct - 13 Oct 2017
Room C4.5, Convention Centre, Level 4
Session information
Rule of Law Symposium: the politics of judicial appointments
Friday 13 October (1115 - 1230)
Committee(s)
Rule of Law Forum
(Lead)
Description
Geoffrey Robertson QC is founder and co-head of Doughty Street Chambers, with a practice in constitutional, criminal, media and international law. He is author of The Justice Game, The Tyrannicide Brief, Crimes Against Humanity: the Struggle for Global Justice, An Inconvenient Genocide and the IBA’s Thematic Paper on the independence of the judiciary. He served as a Recorder in London, and as an Appeal Judge and first President of the UN War Crimes Court in Sierra Leone and as a ‘distinguished jurist’ member of the UN’s Internal Justice Council. He is a Master of the Middle Temple and a Visiting Professor at the New College of Humanities. In 2011, he received the New York Bar Association Award for Distinction in International Law and Politics, and holds honorary degrees from Sydney, Brunel and Bucharest Universities. An independent, competent, incorruptible judiciary is a cornerstone of the rule of law. It is the judiciary that can provide recourse and redress for failures and abuses of the rule of law when they occur in a society or in the other branches of government. A judiciary that is political, biased, malleable, or corrupt can undercut or nullify a country’s commitment to the rule of law. The appointment process is a critical step to building a judiciary of qualified, impartial judges who will act with integrity to protect the public interest. Geoffrey Robertson will address the appointment process, ways in which it can be abused, and how countries can use it to strengthen, or to compromise, the rule of law. If you wish to attend the Rule of Law Symposium only, please register at https://www.int-bar.org/Conferences/Registration/Delegate/index.cfm?uid=0BF42BC4-5233-44DB-BC41-8516FFE34C3B.
Session / Workshop Chair(s)
Homer Moyer Jr | Miller & Chevalier Chartered, Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Co-Chair, Rule of Law Forum |
Carmen Pombo | Fernando Pombo Foundation, Madrid, Spain; Co-Chair, Rule of Law Forum |
Keynote Speakers
Geoffrey Robertson KC | Doughty Street Chambers, London, England |
Speakers
Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG | Former Justice of the High Court of Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Vice Chair, IBA's Human Rights Institute |
Tomasz Wardynski | Wardynski & Partners, Warsaw, Poland; IBA Council MemberThe Polish Bar Council |