DECENTRALIZATION AND LOCAL DEMOCRACY:
A PROPOSAL FOR CITIZEN EMPOWERMENT IN CAMEROON, MALI AND
SENEGAL. The project goals included promoting democratic
participation in decision-making and the decentralization
of governance in French-speaking Africa. U.S. State
Department 1997
MAASAI EDUCATION
DISCOVERY PARTNERSHIP IN TECHNOLOGY. Linked to thed
larger UMass Boston/Egerton University Kenya
projects, the program is developing a computer and information
technology certificate program, peer group mentoring and
youth-at-risk outreach programs, distance learning, and
community internet connectivity for training. Education
for Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI)/USAID
January 2003
PARTNERSHIP IN TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT,
EGERTON UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES,
NJORO, KENYA. A Partnership that is strengthening technology
and information resources at Egerton, promoting local economic
development initiatives in the Njoro area; improving Egerton's
capacity to work with out-of-school and at-risk youth; and
building a Social Sciences Computer Lab and a Cyber Café/Business
Center. EDDI/USAID 2002
DECENTRALIZATION AND LOCAL DEMOCRACY:
A PROPOSAL FOR CITIZEN EMPOWERMENT IN CAMEROON, MALI AND
SENEGAL. The project goals included promoting democratic
participation in decision-making and the decentralization
of governance in French-speaking Africa. U.S. State Department
1997
DECENTRALIZATION AND LOCAL DEMOCRACY:
A PROPOSAL FOR CITIZEN EMPOWERMENT MALI AND SENEGAL, PHASE
II. The project goals included promoting democratic
participation in decision-making and the decentralization
of governance in French-speaking Africa. U.S. State Department
2000
THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN A DEMOCRACY:
A PROPOSAL FOR NAMIBIA. The project promoted efficient
and effective local government and the institutionalization
of democratic values, enhanced democratic participation
in decision-making, encouraged reform of local government
administration, and familiarized public administrators with
comparative managerial challenges and approaches. U.S. State
Department 1996
SAINT-LOUIS REGIONAL COMMUNITY RESOURCE
CENTER SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE, WITH UNIVERSITE GASTON
BERGER DE SAINT-LOUIS. Seven separate UGB/Community
working groups have been established (Youth Center, Women's
Center, Telecentre, Cyber Café/Business Center, Poultry
Production, Sewing/Tie Dye and World Space Radio Programming)
and are working out of the new Regional Community Resource
Center. EDDI/USAID, 2002
MULTI-FUNCTION COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER
FOR NORTHERN SENEGAL, UNIVERSITE GASTON BERGER DE SAINT-LOUIS,
SENEGAL. Community Resource Center that is serving as
a women's center, a small business development center, and
a class room location for university-community educational
programs in computer information technology instruction,
agricultural and environmental management, entrepreneurship
and civic education. (EDDI) 2001
PARTNERSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION BETWEEN
UNIVERSITE GASTON BERGER AND THE JOHN W. MCCORMACK INSTITUTE.
This parternship strengthened the
African partner's educational missions of teaching, research,
and service, contributed to the preparation of a responsible
citizenry and a skilled workforce, and increased attention
to development issues both on the campuses and among the
two institutions' varied constituencies. ALO/USAID 1999
DEMOCRACY, LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND DECENTRALIZATION:
MALI AND SENEGAL: PHASE II. The project goals promoted
democratic participation in decision-making, decentralized
patterns of governance, and institutionalization of democratic
values through exchange between public and private leaders
and citizens from two continents. U.S. Department of State
2000.
DECENTRALIZATION AND LOCAL DEMOCRACY:
A PROPOSAL FOR CITIZEN EMPOWERMENT IN CAMEROON, MALI AND
SENEGAL. The project goals included promoting democratic
participation in decision-making and the decentralization
of governance in French-speaking Africa. U.S. State Department
1997
MAYIBUYE CENTER - McCormack Institute
PARTNERSHIP- The Mayibuye Center at the University of
Western Cape is serving as the archives for an oral history
of the black liberation movement in South Africa based on
McCormack Senior Fellow Padraig'O'Malley's decade-long project
to capture the South African transition in the words of
the actors themselves. Now totaling over 2,000 hours of
taped interviews, the O'Malley audio recordings are being
indexed and placed on CD-ROM for distribution to all schools
and libraries in South Africa. January 2003
INDABA AT ARNISTON, SA - This remarkable
program in conflict management brought all the constitutional
Northern Irish leadership to South Africa for a series of
workshops with South African President Mandela, cabinet
ministers and high-ranking government officials involved
in the dismantling of apartheid. May/June 1997.
COMPARATIVE MOOT COURT PILOT PROJECT
FOR CHINA: JUDGES WORKING WITH JUDGES - THE JOHN M. MCCORMACK INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS JUDGES CONFERENCE (MJC) AND THE INSTITUTE
FOR TRANSITIONAL ECONOMIES (ITE), THE SUPREME PEOPLE'S COURT
OF CHINA, TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL, SICHUAN JUDGES
CONFERENCE, THE HIGH PEOPLE'S COURT OF JIANGSU PROVINCE.
A program of moot courts in which leading judges, prosecutors,
attorneys, and legal educators participated. The moot court
included one civil case under United States rules to introduce
key participants to aspects of American judicial procedure
that make courts trusted arbiter in business cases; specifically
to demonstrate the rule of evidence and the application
of fundamental principles of due process throughout the
system. The sessions were held in Beijing at Tsinghua University,
and in Nanjing. The final phase of the program will take
place in Cheng-du in September 2003. State Department 2001.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE AND THE
RULE OF LAW: A PROPOSAL FOR AN EXCHANGE OF JUDGES, PRSECUTORS,
AND ATTORNEYS FROM THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA PROMOTING
REFORM IN THE CHINESE JUSTICE SYSTEM - THE JOHN W. MCCORMACK INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
BOSTON, THE MASSACHUSETTS JUDGES CONFERENCE, THE INSTITUTE
FOR TRANSITIONAL ECONOMIES, THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE, THE
SUPREME PEOPLE'S COURT, THE SUPREME PEOPLE'S PROCURATORATE.
This project promoted reform in the Chinese justice system
by introducing a selected delegation of Chinese judges,
prosecutors, and attorneys to the U.S. justice system. During
the exchange, the importance of a justice system that is
based on the rule of law and supports it was emphasized,
especially with regard to economic development, both domestically
and internationally. The project intended the expansion
of the base of exchange between the U.S. partners and the
Chinese justice system in order to lay the foundation for
continued exchanges on issues of legal and government reform.
The project brought a diverse group of twenty-one judges,
prosecutors and attorneys to the United States for a series
of workshops, briefings, and site visits that focused on
the U.S. legal system and included opportunities to meet
professional counterparts here. Topics covered fell into
five broad areas: 1) the structure and functioning of the
U.S. justice system and the relationships among the various
parts of the system; 2) the rights afforded to the accused
and how those rights are protected within the justice system;
3) the relationship between economic development and political
stability on the one hand and a justice system ruled by
law on the other; 4) how members of the justice system are
credentialed, appointed, overseen and removed; 5) administrative
procedures and management of the various parts of the justice
system. State Department 1998.
JUDICIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM, THE JOHN
W. MCCORMACK INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
BOSTON, THE MASSACHUSETTS JUDGES CONFERENCE (MJC), POLITICAL
EDUCATION ACADEMY, ULAANBAATAR, MONGOLIA, U.S. EMBASSY MONGOLIA.
In October 2002, a delegation of Massachusetts judges, legal
professionals and McCormack Institute staff traveled Ulaanbaatar,
Mongolia to participate in Judicial Education Program. The
week long fact-finding program, lead by Honorable Judge
Patrick King, President of the Massachusetts Judges Conference,
was hosted by the Political Education Academy and the U.S.
Embassy in Ulaanbaatar. Follow-up programs on improving
the relationship between the judiciary and print media,
developing a juvenile justice system and developing a judges
association are planned for 2003-2004. Sponsored by the
U.S. Department of State, 2002.
SERBIAN JUDICIAL DELEGATION, THE JOHN
W. MCCORMACK INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
BOSTON, THE MASSACHUSETTS JUDGES CONFERENCE (MJC), SUPREME
COURT OF SERBIA, BAR ASSOCIATION OF SERBIA, U.S. EMBASSY
BELGRADE. In March 2002, the McCormack Institute's Center
for Democracy and Development, and the Massachusetts Judges
Conference, a private organization of 350 Massachusetts
judges, ran a highly successful judge-to-judge exchange
program for an eight person judicial delegation from Serbia.
The visit was lead by the President of the Supreme Court
of Serbia, the Hon. Leposava Karamarkovic, the first woman
to serve in this position, and the Hon. Omer Hadziomerovic,
President of the Bar Association of Serbia and District
Court Judge in Belgrade. The week-long program addressed
the following topics: ethical considerations for the judiciary;
case flow management; the interactive relationship between
the press and the judiciary and the transparency of judicial
records and proceedings; how to improve the court's relationship
with the executive and legislative branches of government.
Sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, 2002.
PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN RUSSIA: BENCH/BAR EDUCATION TO ADDRESS
UNIQUE PROBLEMS WITHIN THE RUSSIAN LEGAL ENVIRONMENT (EXECUTIVE SUMMARY).
The McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston and
the Massachusetts Judges Conference, the private association of Massachusetts State Judges,
propose an exchange program for Russian judges, prosecutors, legal educators and private
litigators focused on intellectual property rights protection, with a special concentration on
copyright protection. (This proposal specifically addresses theme 4.d. in the current BECA RFP).
The project builds on our current BECA-supported work on intellectual property rights protection
with the Russian Supreme Commercial ("Arbitration") Court, and will integrate the Moscow City
Commercial Court and the Russian Academy of Justice (which trains new judges and provides
continuing judicial education in Russia) into our ongoing program.
Over the past two years of work with the Russian Supreme Commercial Court,
we have identified one glaring, but hitherto not fully recognized, problem-the enormous gulf
between industry litigators on the one hand and judges in the Russian commercial courts on the
other over how to approach intellectual property rights protection. Simply put, industry
litigators believe that only prosecution of criminal cases holds any promise; while the local
and national commercial court judges absolutely believe that they have viable powers and
approaches that are simply not being adequately (or even minimally) utilized. Our proposals
for systemic Bench/Bar conferences, workshops and training sessions, growing out of and
addressing this "disconnect" between judiciary and industry, promise to have lasting effects
on increasing both intellectual property rights expertise and on improving prosecution
rates-or, as we will propose, other positive resolution of intellectual property offenses--in
Russia.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS PROTECTION FOR RUSSIA: BRINGING WESTERN APPROACHES TO THE
RUSSIAN ENVIRONMENT (EXECUTIVE SUMMARY).
The John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston and
the Massachusetts Judges Conference (the private association of the State's Judges) propose a
program of exchanges and workshops for Russian lawyers, judges, distributors or licensing
organizations, and press and media focused on intellectual property rights (IPR), with a special
concentration on copyright protection for films/videos, music recordings, computer software and
similar products subject to piracy.
Since 1997, the McCormack Institute and the Massachusetts Judges
Conference have been engaged in a highly successful partnership to promote legal and judicial
reform in Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Russia, and the
Peoples Republic of China. Intellectual property rights have been a focus of each of those
exchanges. The American lead institutions have precisely the kind of on-the-ground experience
and perspective needed to make the Russian IPR project a success.
To ensure the widest possible audience for, and impact of, the
project, we will partner on the ground in Russia with the Russian Guild of Court Reporters (an
association of journalists specializing in legal and judicial coverage throughout the country)
and the Russian Court Information Agency, a nonprofit organization distributing information on
significant judicial precedents to the State Duma, the leading Russian mass media, and other
legal and governmental bodies.
The most unique aspect of our Proposal is our intention to
incorporate an extensive, multi-faceted media and public education campaign to gain the widest
possible awareness of, and attention to, these vital IPR issues in Russia. All partners are
prepared to begin this project in Russia immediately.
REFORM OF COURT ADMINISTRATION FOR
HUNGARY, ROMANIA, THE CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA, AND SLOVENIA:
A PROPOSAL FOR A JUDICIAL EXCHANGE FOCUSING ON EFFICIENT
COURT ADMINISTRATION. THE JOHN W. MCCORMACK INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON, THE MASSACHUSETTS
JUDGES CONFERENCE, THE INSTITUTE FOR TRANSITIONAL ECONOMIES,
THE FEDERAL JUDICIAL CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C. A two
phase project to promote an independent judiciary in the
five Central European countries by exposing judicial and
legal practitioners from those countries to U.S. court structures,
to functions, practices and characteristics of the American
judiciary, and to U.S. court management and administrative
practices. During phase one, judge and one attorney from
each of the five targeted countries visited the United States
for two weeks. Week one was devoted to training conducted
by the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. The second
week took place in the Boston, where delegates met with
judges, court officers, prosecutors, attorneys, and correction
officials and observed first hand the operations of the
judicial system and methods used to assure that the administration
of the courts is both efficient and fair. During phase two,
judges from Massachusetts visited the five countries for
further consultation and assistance with reform efforts.
State Department 1999/2000.
A program in conflict management brought
high-level South African officials to Northern Ireland for
a series of discussions with the Northern Irish leadership.
June 1996.
