Week 2: “ElectionJudgments,” Judicial Curriculum, Abuse of State Resources, and SCOTUS
My work week began with a concerted effort on my part to tackle Modules 1 and 2 of the election dispute resolution (EDR) judicial curriculum that I mentioned in my last blog. Module 1 pertains mostly to judicial principles and international standards; Module 2 is about pre-election steps in EDR. My work in these modules included research into cases from Mexico, Indonesia, and across Africa. My primary goal is to get these lessons finalized to a point where, when teaching in a specific country, an IFES facilitator can cut and edit them to better fit the needs of the country that they’re working in, without having to conduct too much additional research. We’re looking to build solid templates that will allow for customization.
After some time, I got the modules to a point where I was comfortable reaching out for assistance with my supervisors—“I found this legislation from X, is this the ‘Special Election Procedure’ you’re mentioning at Y?” Feedback was positive and the handful of issues that I reported in obtaining information were acknowledged and echoed. For example, despite time and effort, I was never able to locate a specific Ethiopian law on judicial regulations; that law, it turned out, had not yet been adopted by the legislature. Hard to find a law that doesn’t formally exist. Work on these modules is ongoing, but I feel that I’m nearing a stage where things are essentially finalized, but if I encounter useful cases in my summaries for the ElectionJudgments database, notes from those cases can be added.
This week I was also asked to sit in on two conferences—the first was with the Bulgarian Institute for Legal Initiatives, streaming live from Sofia. This conference—which was held almost entirely in Bulgarian—covered ethics rules in the Bulgarian judiciary. John Vaudreuil, a former US federal prosecutor appointed by President Obama, spoke about fostering a culture of ethics in a legal environment. He spoke about then using that culture of ethics to build public trust. The second conference was hosted by the International Bar Association. Panelists participating live from five continents discussed frivolous lawsuits and their effect on judicial systems. The panelists defined frivolous lawsuits in their local jurisdictions and discussed balancing lawyers’ duty to clients (who may instruct their lawyers to file frivolous suits) with lawyers’ duty to courts. The panel landed firmly on the side of a lawyer’s duty to the court.
This week I was also assigned to a project pertaining to a publication created by IFES personnel in Prague. This publication, a Political Finance Oversight Handbook, was published in 2013. Chapter 14 of this publication discusses Abuse of State Resources in election processes and proceedings. As this handbook was published a decade ago, the 100 examples provided in Chapter 14 are now somewhat dated. It will be my job to find more recent examples of candidates and government officials abusing state resources. I began by researching and familiarizing myself with some of the databases used in the 2013 publication; from there, I’ll research specific examples in a variety of locations—news articles, NGO websites, and so on.
The end of my second week at IFES was disrupted by the U.S. Supreme Court. When the Allen v. Milligan opinion was released, I was asked almost immediately to write a brief. I flew through the opinion and typed up something as quickly as I could. By lunchtime on Friday, things had been polished, the brief was being distributed to IFES offices around the world.
Weekend events: Capital Pride