Against this background, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung’s Rule of Law Programme Middle East / North Africa organized a comparative workshop titled “Impartiality of Judges and Social Media: Approaches, Regulations, Results”. The three-day event was held in Cadenabbia, Italy, from March 10th to 13th 2019.

The workshop gathered legal experts, lawyers, professors and judges from across the region (Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisa), Germany and North-America (USA and Canada) to examine differences in legal traditions and regulatory concepts regarding the impartiality of judges. By taking a comparative approach, discussions focused on the different interpretations of judge’s impartiality, the need to regulate the use of social media by judges and the legal effects of existing regulatory concepts. The presentation of relevant case law in Canada, Germany, Lebanon, Tunisia and the United States, gave participants the opportunity to compare and identify different approaches and to analyze or suggest solutions to deal with the relation of judges and media.

The event was organized within the overall objective of the Rule of Law Programme Middle East / North Africa to further develop and implement fundamental principles of the rule of law in countries of the MENA region and will be followed by an online publication of the workshop’s findings.