Table of Contents in the Asian Legal Encyclopedia

Judicial Training in Asia

Judicial Training in Asia in General

See Judicial Training in the World Encyclopedia here.

Judicial Training Institutions in South Asia

Many countries in South Asia have established training institutions, albeit under different names, to meet the training need of judges and other officials associated with the judiciary. Indeed, Sri Lanka established a Judges’ Institute under an Act of Parliament in 1985 and Pakistan established a Federal Judicial Academy in 1988 (subsequently given autonomous status by the Federal Judicial Academy Act of 1997). Similarly, in Bangladesh, the Judicial Administration Training Institute was established in 1995, and in Nepal, the National Judicial Academy was established in 2004.

In India, following a 1993 conference of the Chief Justices of the High Courts that emphasized
professional education, the State Judicial Academies of the respective High Courts began to train judges of their subordinate judiciaries. Later a federal-level Judicial Academy was established by order of the Supreme Court and placed under the tutelage of the Chief Justice of India. This academy began functioning in Bhopal in early 2000s and is now the largest judicial training academy in the world.

In the same vein, a Research and Training Bureau of the Judiciary has been providing judicial
training in of Bhutan. Established in 1994, the Bureau is responsible for research on the sources of Bhutanese laws, court etiquette and manners, formal address and titles, and legal terminology, as well as conducting in-service legal education (including sessions on procedural code, information technology, and Bhutanese literature). The Maldives, on the other hand, have yet to establish an institute for training judges.

It is important to note that even though no one single legal model or institutional framework
applies to these institutions, judicial education in most of these countries follows what is called the Peer Group Model, which is quite popular in most common-law countries (and some civil law countries, like Spain). Indeed, under this model, training institutions are led by judges, who themselves lead trainings in mainstream areas.(1)

Resources

Notes

1. Institutional Framework for Legal and Judicial Training in South Asia, World Bank, pp. 7-8.

Judicial Training

Judicial Training in Asia