The President of the Republic, Mr R. Purryag, GCSK, GOSK, proceeded with the official launching of the Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies on Friday 27 July at the Grand Baie International Conference Centre in the presence of the Attorney-General, Mr Y. Varma and Chief Justice Sik Yuen.
Occupation of a judicial office does indeed require a number of skills and it is essential that prospective judicial officers receive proper training prior to their appointment, stated the Attorney-General, Mr Y. Varma in his address. In fact, numerous are those who have time and again expressed the opinion that an institute along the lines of the “Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature” in France or the Judicial Studies Board in the UK should be set up in Mauritius, he added.
The Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies Act 2011 establishes the Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies which is entrusted with the responsibility to:
(i) conduct or supervise courses, seminars or workshops for the continuous training of judicial and legal officers;
(ii) devise, organise and conduct Continuing Professional Development Programmes for law practitioners and legal officers, and courses for prospective judicial and legal officers and law practitioners who qualified as such in a State other than Mauritius;
(iii) organise and conduct courses for police and public officers, court staff and persons employed by law practitioners, with a view to improving the administration of justice;
(iv) promote proficiency and ensure the maintenance of standards in the Judiciary and among law practitioners and legal officers, and in the delivery of court services in general; and
(v) establish areas of cooperation and linkages with local, regional and international bodies in the judicial and legal sectors.
The Law Practitioners (Amendment) Act 2011 makes it compulsory as from 03 September this year for every law practitioner and legal officer to participate every year in a Continuing Professional Development Programme for the prescribed number of hours.
The Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies is in the process of finalising the details of the first courses to be dispensed during the first quarter of its first academic year.
The Institute is currently based in the premises of the Mediation Division of the Supreme Court at the Happy World House in Port Louis.
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