THE judicial officers of Guyana and the esteem judges of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), on Monday at the Guyana International Conference Centre, engaged in a joint judicial education training exercise facilitated by Justice Saunders of the CCJ.

All the judges of the CCJ were in attendance along with the Magistrates, Registrars, Supreme and Appellate court judges of Guyana. The training exercise was premised on an adaptation of the Shakespearean play ‘The Merchant of Venice’.

The adaptation was first read by a cast drawn from the judicial officers following which there was a lively discussion with a view to identifying themes in the Play that are currently relevant to the delivery of justice in the Caribbean and drawing parallels between the administration and dispensation of justice in 16th century Venice and 21st century Guyana.
The discussion was extremely lively and wide ranging. Dozens of parallels were drawn and these provided a springboard for further discussion on such diverse issues as: mechanisms for strengthening judicial independence; the role of the rule of law in national development; statutory interpretation and the interpretation of contracts; equality before the law and the protection of minorities; the tempering of justice with mercy; and the utility of alternative dispute resolution.

All the judicial officers in attendance expressed deep satisfaction with the training exercise which touched on themes of great topical interest. Sir Dennis Byron, President of the CCJ, noted that the exercise indicated that judicial education could be simultaneously pleasurable, informative and inspirational. The judges of Guyana re-committed themselves to the establishment of a local judicial education institute that would institutionalise judicial education in the country and in this regard, the CCJ pledged to do all that is possible to assist the furtherance of judicial education in Guyana.