The Fordham Law Leitner Center held a week-long training for Ghanaian judges, court administrators and legal practitioners in Accra, Ghana, from 10 – 17 October, 2008, as part of its long-term judicial capacity building project in partnership with the Judicial Service of Ghana and the Federal Judicial Center (FJC) in Washington, D.C.. The project seeks to promote greater fairness and efficiency in the delivery of justice in Ghana through three complimentary programs of activities: visits to the US by members of the Ghanaian Judicial Service; research surveys on the state of the judicial service in Ghana; and formal training sessions in Ghana for members of the judicial service. The training is the first in what the partners hope will be an enduring exchange relationship between Ghana and the U.S.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Brown hosted a reception at her residence in Accra on October 10th in honor of the Chief Justice of Ghana, Her Ladyship Mrs. Georgina Theodora Wood, on the occasion of the launch of the program. Ambassador Brown praised the initiative as a vehicle for mutual cross-cultural legal understanding, growth and development. The judicial training session began the following Monday, with over 100 Ghanaian judges, court administrators, and lawyers taking part in a week-long series of workshops and hypothetical exercises designed to engage the issues of case management theory, approaches and practice; and corruption, judicial ethics and accountability.

FJC’s Director of International Judicial Relations, Mira Gur-Arie, and Senior Research Associate, Donna Stienstra, designed the curriculum and facilitated the trainings with Leitner Center Professor Paolo Galizzi, Judge Janet Arterton of the U.S. District Court of Connecticut; Judge Barbara Rothstein, Director of the Federal Judicial Center, who also sits on the District Court for the Western District of Washington; and Judge Ann Williams of the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Fordham Law students Corina Bogaciu ’09, Aisha Jones ’09, and Ali Shariat ’10, and Ghana School of Law students Samuel Adarkwah, Dennis Adjei Dwomoh, and Hilda Akuoko also provided assistance with the training organization and administration. The response from the participants was enthusiastic and several judges reported successfully implementing case management techniques in their own courts within the week. The partners look forward to building and expanding upon this great start in promoting the cross-cultural legal understanding, growth, and cooperation that are so fundamental to our mutual success and development.