Impartiality of Judges and Social Media

Nadir Elmoumni (right), Justice, Member of the Constitutional Court of Morocco outlined the applicable regulations pertaining to the use of social media by judges in Morocco.

Keith R. Fisher, Principal Consultant and Senior Counsel, National Center for State Courts (USA) presenting applicable case law in the US on the use of (social) media by judges.

The expert meeting was held in Villa la Collina, Konrad Adenauer´s former summer residence at Lake Como.

Aymen Zaghdoudi and Nadir Elmoumni continuing the lively discussions the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches to regulating the use of social media by judges.

Group photo of the participants in front of Villa la Collina (left to right): Nadir Elmoumni, Justice, Member of the Constitutional Court (Morocco); Keith R. Fisher, Principal Consultant and Senior Counsel, National Center for State Courts (USA); Michelle M. Somers, Adjudicator and Arbitrator, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (Canada); Jean Tannous, Judge, Head of the Statistical Unit and the Office of International Relations at the High Judicial Council (Lebanon); Anja Finke, Project Manager at the Rule of Law Programme Middle East/North Africa; Johannes Schmidt, Judge at the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main, Press Spokesman / Deputy Regional Chairman of the Regional Judge’s Association of Hessen (Germany); Lisa Taylor, Undergraduate Program Director, Assistant Professor, Ryerson School of Journalism (Canada); Dr. Anja Schoeller-Schletter, Head of the Rule of Law Programme Middle East/North Africa); Jannika Jahn, Associate Attorney at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Germany) and Aymen Zaghdoudi, Professor Assistant of public law, University of Carthage (Tunisia).

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.