International Consortium for Law and Development
Knowledge in the Service of Democratic Social Change
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International Consortium for Law and DevelopmentKnowledge in the Service of Democratic Social Change |
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In April, 2007 Lorna Seitz and Laura Lucas conducted a week-long legislative drafting workshop for 50 individuals including members of the Attorney General’s office, legislative counsels, ministry and civil society personnel and Members of Parliament. Small groups drafted bills to Safeguard Pregnant Girls and their Unborn Children from Fraudulent Adoption Schemes, Ensure Adequate Compensation for Injuries Induced by the Atomic Tests, Reduce High School Drop-Out Rates, Encourage Marshallese College Graduates to Return to Work in the RMI, Improve Frequency and Consistency of Shipping to the Outer Islands. Mahmoud Sabra, a member of ICLAD's Advisory Board and a Country Contact for Egypt, organized a week long legislative-strengthening workshop for members of both houses of the Algerian Parliament and their staff. Workshop participants received training in the problem-solving theory and methodology from Mr. Sabra and Lorna Seitz, and also benefited from presentations on recording and civil input processes from a Lebanese expert, Riyad Ghannam, and a Swiss expert, Alexandre Fuezessery. Workshop participants assessed three Algerian laws: the Law on Water, the Law for the Protection of the Handicapped, and the Law on Tourism according to the problem-solving methodology. More than one hundred persons attended this UNDP-sponsored workshop. Late in 2003, the Vietnamese government send a high level delegation of senior officials from the Government Office (the equivalent of Cabinet), the Ministry of Justice, and the Parliamentary staff for a two week session to assess the BU Program as a potential source of legislative drafting training. After reviewing the institutionalist legislative theory, methodology and techniques, as well as the BU four month residential training program, they decided to enroll three middle level officials from each of those Vietnamese institutions in the four month program in the spring, 2004, term. There, together with the assistance of Giao Hoang, a Vietnamese Fulbright fellow and University of Hanoi Professor, who participated as a Visiting Scholar in the program in the fall of 2003, the three completed the program. Giao served as interpreter and, in the process, both strengthened his own understanding of how best to translate the theory, methodology and techniques for use in Vietnam’s unique circumstances and, in essence, re-taught the material presented to the other Residence Program participants. On their return, Giao and his colleagues set up an agency, known as LERES, that is devoted to strengthening the capacity of Vietnam's drafters to use law as a mechanism for social change. [Both Giao Hoang, now the Director of LERES, and Pham Tuan Khai, the Deputy Director of Vietnam's Government Office, have agreed to serve as members of ICLAD’s Advisory Board.] From May 24th to June 4th, 2005, the Seidmans, Giao Hoang, Sara Johnson-Steffey and Lorna Seitz conducted a two week workshop in Vietnam. At this workshop, Ann Seidman worked with a group to review construction contracting procedures, Bob Seidman and Giao Hoang facilitated a group addressing judical accountability and Lorna Seitz worked with a group to identify new law-making procedures that would enhance the probable effectiveness of legislative proposals. Sara Johnson-Steffey worked with In 1996-8, the UNDP financed a Ministry of Justice project to help Lao PDR strengthen its drafting capacity through a combination of workshops and sending Ministry of Justice, Parliamentary staff and members of a law-training institute to Boston. The 1998 Asian financial crisis, however, intervened, and the Laotian government accepted a World Bank initiative to finance outside experts to draft new laws. Then, in early 2003, a Laotian team participated in the BU distance course to draft a law on the law-making process. In May, 2005, the Seidmans, along with Lorna Seitz, conducted a two week long UNDP-financed workshop in Lao PDR. During this workshop, Ann Seidman collaboratively reviewed a Laotian team’s Manual for Drafters, written by Laotians in Laotian, using Laotian examples; while Bob Seidman and Lorna Seitz reviewed Lao's Ordinance on Law-making.
The Seidmans and Lorna Seitz conducted a week long workshop, financed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for personnel from government ministries, including the Ministry of Justice and the President’s Office, and the National Assembly. The workshop focused on drafting legislation defensively against corruption. The participants chose three main problem areas: government purchases; tax collection; and criminal justice. In the short time available, the teams outlined the relevant research reports and discussed the importance of drafting legislative provisions to ensure transparency, accountability and participation. In addition, spokespersons from Macedonia and Lithuania discussed their countries’ efforts to reduce corrupt behaviors. The OSCE representative said he would discuss further with relevant officials, including members of Parliament and the University who had participated in the 2003 Distance Course, the possibilities of institutionalizing an on-going project to strengthen drafting capacity and law-making institutions, but – perhaps reflecting the country’s recent political turmoil – ICLAD has, as yet, received no further information on that score.
Glenn Sarka, an ICLAD-affiliated consultant, working under contract with the Asian Development Foundation, first went to Afghanistan in the fall of 2004 to work with the Ministry of Justice on a program to introduce judicial training and improve the court system, and to initiate a program to strengthen legislative drafting capacity. Glenn worked with the Ministry of Justice to identify forty-one drafters to participate in an initial workshop to work in teams to draft seven bills to help resolve social problems they had identified: to prohibit forced marriage; increase school attendance; reduce poppy cultivation; end Kabul traffic congestion; improve garbage collection in Kabul; facilitation of process of property reclamation by returning exiles; end child abduction. Glenn selected and trained 7 facilitators to work with each group. The first two week workshop, under their leadership, took place in late November, at which time the Seidmans, along with April Powell-Willingham and Glenn introduced legislative theory, methodology and techniques; and, to learn how to use those tools, the teams drafted research reports as the basis of designing their proposed bills’ detailed provisions.
During the next three months, with the guidance by Glenn and Eric Putzig, another ICLAD associate employed by Checchi, the teams continued to work over their drafts while carrying on their office work. At a second 4 day workshop in March, again conducted by the Seidmans, working with Glenn and Eric, the teams deepened their understanding of legislative theory, methodology and techniques while working on editing each others’ drafts.
Both at the workshop and in informal and formal gatherings with interested persons from the Asia Foundation, Checchi, the Seidmans, along with Glenn and Eric, discussed future institutionalization of a project to strengthen Afghan drafting capacity and law-making institutions. Those conversations included the possibilities of sending ministry and parliamentary staff personnel, along with civil society and university participants to the BU four-month residential program, but that remains in the planning stage. Glenn, now a consultant for the State University of New York (SUNY)-Albany, will continue working to strengthen the capacity of Afghan Parliamentary staff and the new legislators after their election, probably next fall.
Pakistan On their return to Boston, Bob and Ann spent an evening in Islamabad where they met with the person who had arranged USAID funding for two Pakistani groups to take the distance course, as well as Ann’s former PhD student, now a Senior Dean at Jinnah University, with whom they discussed the possibility of introducing an on-going, self-sustaining learning process in Pakistan. Bob had to return to Boston for classes, but Ann stayed over for a round-table, arranged by Dean Tahir, for the members of the legislature and civil society taking part in the distance course, as well as the head of a leading Economic Research Institute, and the Dean of the Jinnah University Law School. In subsequent e-mail correspondence, Dean Tahir indicated the possibility of establishing a university center for research and training relating to the use of law for good governance and development.
SUNY-Albany arranged with April Powell-Willingham to serve in Iraq for two months, from mid-March to mid-May, as a Senior Legislative Drafting Expert in Baghdad. In this capacity, April worked closely with the newly elected Transitional National Assembly as part of the Consortium on Electoral and Political Strengthening (CEPPS). She, together with Glenn Sarka, implemented a program similar to that in Afghanistan, beginning with a workshop. In the process, they work with Iraqi facilitators who, in the course of helping the workshop participants to prepare bills and reports, also are learning more about how to use law for democratic social change. In July of 2005, Ann and Bob Seidman conducted a series of workshops on the problem-solving methodology in Baghdad. Sara Johnson-Steffey also spent six months in Baghdad (July through December, 2005), working as a Senior Program Officer for NDI, and ICLAD's legal interns spent the summer of 2005 compiling information for in-country consultants and members of Iraq's Constitutional Commission about the experiences other countries have had dealing with common social problems, and about how social problems, such as unemployment, have been, and are being, addressed in Iraq.
Two participants in Harvard University’s doctorate program, active participants in Legal Aid Clinics in their respective countries, Ghana and Nigeria, began working with the BU Program while in the Boston area. One, a lecturer in the University of Ghana, organized a group of his students to participate in the distance course. The other, formerly of counsel for Ken Sara Wiwa, arranged for a member of the Nigerian legal aid clinic to take the distance course. Now, having graduated and returned home permanently, both have begun to take an active role in their countries’ legislative drafting sphere, and to explore avenues for building on-going self-sustaining learning processes, and building a West African Legislative Drafting Institute for Democratic Social Change. As a first step, they plan to hold a two or three week workshop for persons interested in law-drafting and law-making institutions in West Africa. Both also serve as members of ICLAD’s Advisory Board.
Internships
ICLAD has been working with members of the ICLAD Advisory Board who provide leadership to the Brandeis University Sustainable International Development (SID) MA Program in the Heller School to develop a viable internship program to enable SID’s students to fulfill SID’s second year project requirement. This builds on the very successful work of two SID interns, one of whom conducted the evaluation of the BU Program that helped lay the foundations for ICLAD’s establishment; the other drafted a bill and research report that form the core of a book on the use of law to transform the inherited institutions that perpetuate the external dependence, poverty and powerlessness of so many African peoples. Two students from April’s, Bob’s and Ann’s Brandeis SIDs course on Law and Development participated in ICLAD's 2005 internship program: one a law graduate from South Africa, who helped edit the Africa book, and one a Pakistani student who has worked with April Powell-Willingham and Lorna Seitz to advance our understanding of how religion and state interact in various countries. In 2005, ICLAD also instituted a summer internship program for law and graduate students. This program, directed by Lorna Seitz, hosted a total of 14 students, representing law schools in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Minnesota, in the summer of '05. In the future, ICLAD aims to expand both the summer and year-round internship programs. Interns receive training in the use of legislative theory, methodology, and techniques. 2004-6 Distance Course Countries and Topics: Palau: Protecting Sensitive Marine Areas |
Guyana: 2003-2006 |
Distance Course Countries and Topics: 2000-2003 Kyrgysztan: Micro-enterprises’ lacked access to credit |