July 15, 2010 · 14:20

A (denied) glimpse into Burma’s justice system

Burma’s justice system remains amongst the most opaque in Southeast Asia. While the law nominally mandates open trials, the judge can order a closed trial at his or her discretion. Yesterday, according to Democratic Voice of Burma, there was an interesting case of a judge apparently allowing the defendant’s family to attend trial, only for the family to be blocked by Military Intelligence. The entire article is worth a read as it provides a brief glimpse into the Burmese criminal justice system.

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Filed under Burma, criminal procedure

July 14, 2010 · 02:58

Asian Constitutional Court Judges

This looks interesting. Jakarta will be hosting the 7th Asian Constitutional Court Judges Conference this week. The conference is a chance for constitutional court judges to network and share experiences. If I’d known about it earlier, I would love to have tried to attend. As it stands, if anybody is in Jakarta and plans on attending, please let me know!

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Filed under Uncategorized

July 13, 2010 · 15:54

Thai Judicial Politics

I’d been working on a short piece about Thailand’s judicial system for the New Mandala blog, and it’s just been published. I’m admittedly not an expert on Thai courts, or even Thailand, but I tried to bring a larger perspective on judicial politics to the situation in Thailand. I suggest that conservative judicial politics has become embedded within the judiciary because of judicial reforms during the late 1890s and 1990s, which introduced civil law courts and judicial review, respectively. I’m currently working on a sequel focusing on the Constitutional Court. I’ll let you know when it’s posted.

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Filed under judicial reform, Thailand

July 12, 2010 · 15:29

A woman’s touch for Islamic law

First of all, I apologize for not posting the past few weeks. I’ve been a bit sick and decided to take it easy.

When catching up on the news, I saw an interesting development in Malaysia. The government recently appointed two female judges to the Shariah court system – the first women ever on the Islamic bench. Sisters in Islam, a feminist NGO group, had long advocated such a move in order to reduce the alleged bias against women on the courts. However, as I discussed in my recent review of the book Islamic Modern, the reality of gender dynamics in the courts might be a bit more complex. Nonetheless, a greater gender balance on the bench is inevitably a positive development for the Shariah courts.

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Filed under gender, Islam, Malaysia

June 30, 2010 · 16:54

Aquino sworn in – by Justice Carpio

President Aquino was sworn in today. Notably, the justice conducting the oath of office and inaugural ceremonies was not Chief Justice Corona, but rather Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales (see right – image from PhilStar). This decision stems partly from Aquino’s strident opposition of former president Arroyo’s “midnight appointment” of the new chief justice (see here for a refresher). Aquino’s mother, Cory, was also sworn in by an associate justice, one who had taken a strong anti-Marcos stand. It’s still not clear how much of an impact this move will actually have on relations between the executive and judiciary, but it should be fascinating to watch over the coming months.

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Filed under Aquino, Philippines