Tag: World Jurist Association

The President of the Constitutional Court of Spain chaired meeting of the Spanish legal profession for the World Law Congress 2021

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>> The meeting was attended by the Minister of Justice of Spain, the Colombian Ambassador to Spain, the former president and current judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Eduardo Ferrer, and the 50 most important law firms with presence in Spain

The Madrid Bar Association (ICAM) hosted a lunch with representatives of legal institutions and law firms convened by the World Jurist Association (WJA). During such, the program of the Opening Session Bogotá-Madrid of the World Law Congress Colombia 2021 was presented, which will be held during July 5 and 6 in Madrid. This lunch was attended by the President of the Constitutional Court of Spain, Juan José González Rivas, the Minister of Justice of Spain, Juan Carlos Campo, the Colombian Ambassador to Spain, Luis Guillermo Plata, the judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor, the president of the General Council of Spanish Lawyers, Victoria Ortega, the dean of ICAM, José María Alonso, and the vice president of the Mutual Fund for Lawyers, Joaquín García-Romanillos.

During the opening speech, José María Alonso acknowledged that the hosting of this event is “a joint project to promote the Spanish and Ibero-American legal world beyond our borders.” The Dean pointed out the importance of “being aware of our potential and to act in unison.” In this sense, he welcomed initiatives such as those of the World Jurist Association, “which has the objective of reinforcing and enlarging our presence in the world, as well as being a collective, supportive and inclusive project.”

For his part, Javier Cremades, president of the WJA, underlined the association’s special defense of the rule of law and explained that in the world “there are profound processes of distortion and falsification of the rule of law within our democracies; alerts that exist in many countries and show that the rule of law must be taken care of so that more and more people take shelter under it”, recalling “the need for life to occur under the rule of the law ”.

Let us remember that the World Law Congress brings together prestigious presidents of courts, magistrates, government officials, academics, lawyers, students and legal professionals from around the world, who discuss defense issues of the rule of law as a warrantor of freedom. The last edition, held in Madrid in 2019, brought together more than 2,000 jurists, a framework in which the WJA awarded King Felipe VI with the World Peace & Liberty Award.

The next edition of the World Law Congress, which will be held in Colombia, on December 2 and 3, 2021, has held Opening Sessions from different cities around the world over the course of a year, with the Opening Session Bogotá-Madrid being the most powerful of all, as an allegory to the delivery of the witness from one country to the other.

Ambassador Luis Guillermo Plata expressed the suitability of holding the Congress at a time like the one Colombia is going through. He highlighted the values ​​promoted by this event and the message it conveys, since “Colombia is a country where we must talk about freedom, democracy and rights, but all within the framework of the law.”

The Minister of Justice of Spain, who participated in the inauguration of the opening sessions in Barcelona in July 2020, congratulated the World Jurist Association for having references from the international legal sphere, and has recognized that this event “represents an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen international legal cooperation”.

For his part, the president of the Constitutional Court of Spain expressed his wish that the celebration of the Opening Session Bogotá-Madrid and the congress in Colombia “be moments of deepening on the values ​​of the rule of law.”

Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor, Judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Trustee of the World Law Foundation and member of its Organizing Committee, presented the content of the Opening Session Bogotá-Madrid program. On July 5, he highlighted the holding of an unprecedented panel discussion on gender equality and the rule of law, made up by presidents and judges of the world’s most important supranational courts, who will meet for the first time in history. Similarly, tribute will be paid to the recently deceased Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the last recipient of the World Peace & Liberty Award in 2020, and the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Medals of Honor. Ginsburg of the WJA to the world’s leading women jurists will be presented in her honor.

For its part, on July 6 there will be a summit of presidents of the supreme and constitutional courts of Europe and the Americas, which will also have presidents of different institutions related to the Judiciary and the presidents of the bars of the Mexican legal profession, with aim to discuss the rule of law.

Al finalizar el acto se entregaron placas conmemorativas a José María Alonso , Decano del ICAM, Luis de Carlos , Patrono de la World Law Foundation y Presidente de Uría Menéndez, Pedro Pérez Llorca ¸ Socio Director de Pérez-Llorca, Carlos Rueda , Socio Director de Gómez-Acebo y Pombo, y Fernando Bautista , Socio Director de Bautista & Asociados. Un reconocimiento a su permanente y necesaria colaboración con el éxito del World Law Congress Madrid 2019.

SIGN THE WJA DECLARATION ON THE RULE OF LAW IN MEXICO

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Recent events in Mexico have raised concerns in the international legal community, in connection with important aspects of the Mexican constitutional and legal order.

As a global association of jurists, the WJA’s ultimate mission is the promotion of the rule of the law and never of the force; in this line, the WJA on behalf of the whole legal international community will issue an institutional declaration on the Rule of Law in Mexico. 

(You may sign the Declaration HERE)

With this initiative, the WJA seeks to encourage the national and international legal community, as well as the Mexican government authorities, officials, judges, magistrates and the civil society to stand firm in defending and upholding the Rule of Law.

The WJA calls for dialogue among all levels of government, the judiciary, and civil society, to unite, in order to promote respect for and the supremacy of the rule of law, and offers its support and assistance to all parties who wish to work together in good faith to resolve the differences now faced by the government and people of Mexico.

READ THE WJA DECLARATION ON THE RULE OF LAW IN MEXICO

To sign and support this Declaration CLICK HERE

LEA LA DECLARACIÓN DE LA WJA SOBRE EL ESTADO DE DERECHO EN MÉXICO

Puede firmar la declaración AQUÍ

“The Distortion of the Economic & Social Constitution from La Paz”

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>> The main presidents of the Ibero-American jurisprudence academies have participated in the latest Opening Session

The World Jurist Association (WJA) and the Permanent Conference of Ibero-American Jurisprudence Academies have organized the debate “The Distortion of the Economic & Social Constitution”, moderated by Ramiro Moreno Baldivieso, president of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Bolivia. This meeting has brought the main representatives of the Ibero-American academies of jurisprudence together virtually and has become the eleventh Opening Session of the World Law Congress Colombia 2021.

Augusto Trujillo, president of the Colombian Academy of Jurisprudence, has recognized that “the rule of law supposes freedom for economic activity and for private initiative, but without forgetting the responsibilities of the social state.” In this sense, he assured that “the law has to be a true guarantee of coexistence”. Javier Cremades, president of the WJA and the World Law Foundation (WLF), has reinforced this position, assuring that “if we want rule of law, we have to work towards it and make sure that there is no distortion or destruction of the Constitution, for which it is essential to identify when threats and attacks on the rule of law begin to be created”. Manuel Aragón Reyes, academic director of the World Law Congress, emeritus magistrate of the Constitutional Court of Spain and member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Spain, also made reference to this, stressing that “when the rule of law is distorted, the social state is harmed”.

For his part, Bernardo Fernández del Castillo, president of the Academy of Jurisprudence of Mexico, has underlined the relevance of transferring what the rule of law implies: “it is seldom understood by the general population because they do not have a clear concept of what it can encompass, implying respect for the legal order in the legislative hierarchy of each country”. He also stressed that “it entails absolute respect on the part of the human rights authority and has the obligation to ensure that this is respected.” However, Mario Castillo Freyre, director of Conferences of the Peruvian Academy of Jurisprudence, believes that “[Peruvian] society has accepted the falsification of political organizations.”

Encarnación Roca, vice-president of the Constitutional Court of Spain, has placed special emphasis on the protection of children in the rule of law and has recognized that “we must try not to leave the interest of the minor only to a programmatic declaration”, and in terms of child exploitation, pointed out that “work prevents children from having a healthy childhood, a full childhood and a safe environment.” In addition, she highlighted the importance of minors knowing what democracy is, because otherwise, she assured, “they will not be able to live in a rule of law.”

Cecilia Sosa Gómez, president of the Supreme Court of Venezuela (1996-2000) and member of the Academy of Political and Social Sciences of the country, has analyzed how the constitutional distortion of economic rights occurs: “we are experiencing turbulence associated with the Venezuelan political process and the impossibility of solving the problem in light of the Constitution is due to the fact that the 1999 text has been a mere facade for the tempters of power and the opposition elites have had a purely political vision of the problem and not constitutional or institutional, nor economical either”.

Along these lines, José Luis Cea Egaña, president of the Chilean Academy of Jurisprudence, has commented “with uncertainty and some hope” the problem that his country is currently going through. “Although we are close to voting on a new Constitution, we are going through a process of deconstitutionalization in which the phases of the legal system are being violated and there is an environment of misrule along with vandalism where society is being neglected by the State, which is weak, fragile and does not serve the human person”. In his speech, Sergio D’Andrea, president of the Brazilian Academy of Legal Letters, explained how the Amazon has become a lost paradise within the framework of the distortion of the social and economic Constitution.

For his part, Rafael Vergara, former director general of the Bolivian Tax Authority and the country’s Academy of Jurisprudence, has focused on debates such as those involved in the opening sessions: “we jurists must guide these meetings so that these decisions which distort the nature of constitutional control and the essence of the defense of minorities and the rule of law, do not repeat themselves in another part of Latin America”. And for Armando Andruet, president of the Academy of Jurisprudence of Cordoba, “the best laws make citizens better and they deserve to have judges who judge with broad scientific capacity and a dignity and ethical commitment.”

This has been the eleventh day of the series of opening sessions prior to the World Law Congress to  be held in Colombia this year, making it coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Colombian constitution. Through the projection of an institutional video, the president of the host country, Iván Duque, has pledged to “continue promoting the strength of the rule of law as fertile ground to allow the growth and well-being, development and freedom of citizens”, and has assured that “we will continue working to build a better future for all based on the strength and guarantees of the rule of law”.

Opening Session Lisbon: Educate in Human Rights

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“Human rights education is vital to promote participation in inclusion, cooperation and solidarity; it fosters understanding and prevents violence and, as such, it should be treated as an investment in the future that should not be optional”. This is how Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Chile, has defended the need to promote and respect human rights through education. She has done so during the Lisbon Opening Session organized by the World Jurist Association and the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI), as a prelude to the World Law Congress Colombia 2021.

Bachelet has recognized that all citizens should be able to «have the assurance that we are all equally deserving of dignity, respect and justice, without discrimination.» Corroborating her words, Mariano Jabonero, Secretary General of the OEI and co-organizer of the event, has assured that “every child has the right to have rights and, although it has not always been a maxim defended in schools, the objective is that the educational system assumes this task as fundamental and as a priority”.

Marta Lucía Ramírez, Vice-president of Colombia, also participated in the conference, considering the need for more institutions committed to prevention, investigation and punishment: “strengthen the institutional framework and talk about justice in relation to human rights and the capacity of the state to prevent actions violating against such and to punish said violations”. He has also assured that «in the Government of Colombia we prioritize respecting and guaranteeing human rights within the framework of the law» because, as he adds, «human rights violations are the cause of conflicts later in the future and we have to ensure that all citizen actions are aimed at sustainable peace”.

The former President of the Government of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is committed to equality between men and women to achieve human rights in all parts of the world: “it is the great transforming force”. «The most advanced countries are those in which women enjoy the same rights as men in real terms and where the values ​​of coexistence in equality, which generate peace, dialogue and understanding, are those that spread within society», he added.

For his part, Leonel Fernández, former President of the Dominican Republic and President of the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), has recognized that “much progress has been made in Ibero-America, through its constitutions, regarding the construction of a democratic state under the rule of law, but we must advance in confronting crime and impunity to consolidate democracy and the defense of human rights”.

In charge of moderating the debate was Elisabeth Cassin, patron of the World Law Foundation (WLF) and former Vice President of Orange UK, who stressed that “human rights must be positioned above the interests of States and set education as an integral part of this objective”. In this regard, Javier Cremades, President of the WJA and the WLF, has ruled that «human rights education is a debt that each generation owes to the next.»

This meeting has summed the tenth session prior to the World Law Congress to be held in Colombia later this year, making it coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Colombian constitution. Through the projection of an institutional video, the President of the host country, Iván Duque, has pledged to “continue promoting the strength of the rule of law as fertile ground to allow the growth and well-being, development and freedom of citizens» and has assured that «we will continue working to build a better future for everyone based on the strength and guarantees of the rule of law. »

FULL SESSION: https://youtu.be/lVs9J_DPyr4

SUMMARY SESSION: https://youtu.be/YXaYOvqSSiY

Opening Session Caracas: Distortion of the Rule of Law

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Together with the Permanent Conference of Ibero-American Legal Academies (CPAJI in Spanish), the World Jurist Association (WJA) organized this preliminary session of the World Law Congress Colombia 2021, which has taken up the importance of underpinning the Rule of Law to ensure human dignity:

“It must be cared for and protected from constant threats and must always lead to justice and equity, because the only guarantee of freedom and peace is submission to the laws, not to the rule of force.”

Javier Cremades

President of WJA & WLF

During the opening, representing the CPAJI, Augusto Trujillo, Professor of Constitutional Law and President of the Colombian Academy of Jurisprudence, pointed out that “the rule of law is a guarantee of coexistence and, if this is not the case, we are facing a state of arbitrariness with laws”.

Humberto Romero Muci, Professor of Financial Law at the Andrés Bello Catholic University and President of the Academy of Political and Social Sciences of Venezuela, was the host and moderator of this debate titled “Falsehood of the Rule of Law”. He highlighted the situation in Venezuela and described it as “dramatic” due to the “dysfunction of democracy and the systematic violation of the Rule of Law suffered by Venezuelans”.

“There has been a disfigurement by those governing who come to power determined to use and adulterate the institutions for their own benefit, with the aim of undermining the balance between the different government bodies”.

Humberto Romero Muci

These statements were endorsed by Karlos Navarro, professor at the Universidad Santo Tomás, director of the Ibero-American Institute of Higher Studies (IIES) and president of the Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Nicaragua, for whom “the authoritarian model in Latin America has the capacity to resist, mutate and survive, developing mostly in poor societies lacking democracy”.

For Allan R. Brewer-Carías, professor emeritus of the Central University of Venezuela and member of the Academy of Political and Social Sciences of Venezuela, the Rule of Law implies seven principles: constitutionalism, democratization, deconcentration of power, legality and judicialization, decentralization of power, primacy of human rights and civil government.

This position is shared by Laura Chinchilla, president of Costa Rica (2010-2014), who emphasized that:

“the rule of law is the most important guarantor of democracy against those who exercise power, and therefore is the favorite prey of politicians with weak democratic convictions, because it stands in the way of their will or the ends they pursue and the rules”.

For his part, Néstor Pedro Sagües, Professor Emeritus of the University of Buenos Aires and Member of the National Academy of Law and Social Sciences of Buenos Aires, pointed out that “a country whose Congress becomes a factory of institutional laws contributes to significantly diminish the normative force of the Constitution”.

Along these lines, Manuel Aragón Reyes, academic director of the World Law Congress, professor emeritus of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, magistrate emeritus of the Constitutional Court of Spain and member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Spain, warned about the risk posed by the abusive use of emergency legislation, “what we know as a decree-law”. And he highlighted the obligation that jurists have:

 “to protect the Rule of Law, to denounce its breaches and to contribute with our voices to confront situations of real distortion”. 

Marisol Peña, first woman president of the Constitutional Court of Chile (2013-2014), minister of the Chilean Constitutional Court (2006-2018), university professor and member of the Chilean Academy of Social, Political and Moral Sciences, highlighted the work carried out by the Ibero-American Academies of Jurisprudence within the World Law Congress, inviting virtual attendees to the next Opening Session Córdoba, which will also be organized by the Ibero-American academies.

This is the eighth session preceding the World Law Congress Colombia 2021, which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Colombian constitution. Through the projection of an institutional video, the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, promised to “continue promoting the strength of the rule of law as fertile ground to allow growth and welfare, development and freedom of citizens” and assured that “we will continue working to build a better future for all based on the strength and guarantees of the rule of law”. 

FULL SESSION: https://youtu.be/EshNgDt1SDo

SUMMARY SESSION: https://youtu.be/LcvobsDVxZw

The Rule of Law through the Educational System WLC Opening Session Dominican Republic

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Chaired by Luis Henry Molina Peña, President of the Supreme Court of the Dominican Republic, the World Jurist Association celebrated the Opening Session Dominican Republic of the World Law Congress “Higher Education: A dialogue in the Market”, on January 19, 2021. The event focused on the need to promote the rule of law through the education system.

Javier Cremades, President of the World Jurist Association (WJA) and the World Law Foundation, opened the debate by calling for collaboration to “educate the population on the importance of the rule of law through all educational structures and thus ensure that the new generations of judges, prosecutors and jurists can have access to a coherent legal system”.

Along these lines, María Eugenia Gay, president of WJA Spain and dean of the Barcelona Bar Association, acknowledged that the education system at its highest levels has to provide students with the tools they need to perform their work in decent conditions, and added that we must ensure that we provide all the mechanisms to ensure that lack of experience is an intermediate stage between training and employment.

William Adams, Managing Director of Accreditation and Legal Education at the American Bar Association, emphasized that training around the rule of law will have a greater impact on higher education if it starts at the grassroots: “civics education in elementary schools was very common, it disappeared and now it is coming back into the curriculum, and I hope that the school boards start acknowledging that this is as necessary as it used to be.

For his part, Antonio García Padilla, president of the Puerto Rican Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation, coordinator and moderator of the panel, directed the debate towards the dichotomy that arises from the possibility of pursuing an entire law degree online, while there are countries that do not recognize the quality of a distance education. In fact, Joseph K. West, partner and head of diversity and inclusion at Duane Morris, insisted on the need to “be aware of how you are educating and what education you are providing, because schools need to focus on inclusion, as they have begun to understand what the real situation is in dealing with people.”

Maite D. Oronoz Rodríguez, president of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, emphasized that currently “we are training lawyers for the 20th century because, although the world has evolved, the judiciary has not evolved as fast”. She believes that it is “imperative to rethink the way we educate,” but acknowledged that “while it is true that technology facilitates justice and the search for truth, I am not sure that it makes a student complete with the needs that we will keep on having in courtrooms.” In this sense, as she pointed out, “the interpersonal intelligence and communication that occurs in an academic environment, in a classroom or in a courtroom, I don’t think is fully and completely achieved by a fully online preparation or education.”

Regarding the role technology is playing in the legal aspect, Luis Henry Molina Peña, president of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Dominican Republic, said that “the Internet has become an essential element that, until now, had only had an impact on the processing of paperwork. Now, it has transformed the operators of the administration of justice and has allowed citizens to get closer to justice, enabling them to have control over the provision of a service, for example, and providing them with greater transparency”.

Jaime Granados Peña, lawyer and university professor, specialist in criminal law, emphasized that the most difficult thing in the Colombian judicial system has been to understand that technology is not a threat, but a tool to achieve different circumstances: “they represent an opportunity to bring respect for the law closer to citizens and generate new possibilities for their rights to become a reality”.

This meeting is the sixth session prior to the World Congress of Law to be held in Colombia this year, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Colombian constitution. Through the projection of an institutional video, the president of the host country, Iván Duque, has committed to “continue promoting the strength of the rule of law as fertile ground to allow growth and welfare, development and freedom of citizens” and has assured that “we will continue working to build a better future for all based on the strength and guarantees of the rule of law”.

FULL SESSION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWvjTrOtlFM

SUMMARY SESSION: https://youtu.be/kOpOSVUW2q8