Judicial Commission of NSW Annual Report 2017-18

Judicial Commission of NSW — Annual Report 2017–18 64 Our partners and the community Case study: Benchmarking best practice with our international partners The Judicial Commission is part of a global network of judicial education and training organisations that have been established in civil and common law jurisdictions since the 1960s. The International Organization for Judicial Training (IOJT) has 131 institutions from 81 developed and developing countries as members. Established in 2002, the IOJT aims to promote the rule of law through international cooperation. This mission is realised by providing opportunities for members to network and exchange professional strategies, and by assisting members to develop curricula and the capacity of their training faculty. The Judicial Commission has been a member of the IOJT since 2004. Being an IOJT member means the Commission is engaged with best practice in judicial education trends globally and can share its considerable accumulated experience with other members. The IOJT’s General Assembly is convened once every two years. Between these meetings, the Board of Executives and Board of Governors direct and operate the organisation. The Chief Executive is a member of the Board of Executives of the IOJT. The need for an international umbrella group was recognised in 1997 at a judicial training conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Conferences are held every two years. The IOJT publishes an international journal, Judicial Education and Training , and provides access Chancellor Adolfo S Azcuna of the Philippines Judicial Academy welcomes delegates to the 8th International Conference on the Training of the Judiciary held in Manila, November 2017. to resources and online courses on its website at www.iojt.org . One of the benefits of the IOJT is the assistance that better-resourced members such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States, can provide to judicial education bodies in developing countries to support the consolidation of an independent judiciary. In November 2017, the Chief Executive, Ernest Schmatt AM PSM and the Commission’s Director, Education, Una Doyle, attended the IOJT’s 8th International Conference on the Training of the Judiciary, Judicial Education 2025: Core Values and Future Innovations in Manila, the Philippines. Members of the IOJT unanimously resolved at the conference to adopt the Declaration of Judicial Training Principles . The principles apply to all 131 diverse member judicial training institutions. The Judicial Commission of NSW has long incorporated many of these principles in its continuing judicial education policy, originally settled in 1991. The Commission has, for example, embraced the innovative use of technology in the delivery of its judicial education program, reflecting principle 10, directed towards the optimal use of new technologies, distance/online learning, and electronic media. Board members of the International Organization for Judicial Training, including Mr Ernest Schmatt AM PSM, on a visit to the Philippine Judicial Academy as part of the 8th IOJT International Conference on the Training of the Judiciary, November 5–9, 2017 in Manila, the Philippines.