History

Introduction

An innovative experiment

Background to its formation

Meetings of the Group

The Preparatory Meeting, Vienna, 2000

The Second Meeting, Bangalore, 2001

The Third Meeting, Colombo, 2003

The Fourth Meeting, Vienna, 2005

The Fifth Meeting, Vienna, 2007

The Sixth Meeting, Lusaka, 2010

The Seventh Meeting, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 2012

The Eighth Meeting, Berlin, Germany, 2020

Achievements of the Group

Survey Instruments

The Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct

Commentary on the Bangalore Principles

Measures for the Effective Implementation of the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct.

Principles of Conduct for Judicial Personnel

Recent Developments

Membership and Organization

In terms of the 2007 Memorandum of Understanding, as amended in 2020, the Group consists of such number of active members and honorary members as the Group determines from time to time, the number of active members not exceeding fifteen, being persons who hold, or have held, high judicial or legal office at a national, regional, or international level. The Group, by consensus, determines to admit new members, bearing in mind the importance of ensuring, so far as is practicable, gender diversity, and either an equitable geographical distribution or the representation of the major legal systems of the world. Members join the Group on the understanding that they will resign (or shall be deemed to have resigned) should they become personally involved in a controversy that has the potential adversely to affect the work of the Group.

Retirement from membership of the Group is entirely voluntary and should ordinarily take place when a member believes that he or she can no longer play an active role in promoting the objectives of the Group, or if he or she has undertaken an assignment that is incompatible with membership of the Group. Upon retirement, the Group may invite such person to serve the Group in an advisory capacity as an Honorary Member.

The management and day-to-day operations of the Group, including the implementation of the decisions of the Group, the organization of its meetings and maintaining a record of such meetings, the implementation of the decisions of the Group, and the preparation or commissioning of research papers when necessary, is the responsibility of the Coordinator/Rapporteur.

Dr Nihal Jayawickrama has served as Coordinator from the inception of the Group, and now serves also as the Rapporteur. He is a former Attorney-General and Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice of Sri Lanka, Ariel F. Sallows Professor of Human Rights at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong, and Executive Director of Transparency International, Berlin. He is also the author of The Judicial Application of Human Rights Law: National, Regional and International Jurisprudence (Cambridge University Press, 1200 pp, 2002; 2nd ed.2017). He was assisted by the late Jeremy Pope, former Director of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat and Managing Director of Transparency International. Jeremy Pope passed away in 2012.

Funding

The Group, by consensus, agrees to seek and receive funding for the purpose of realising its objectives, including the management of the Group’s activities and the organization of its meetings, from any institution, organization, foundation, government or individual the Group deems appropriate. Such funds are usually received and administered, on behalf of the Group, by a designated institution or organization.

The first meeting of the Group in 2000 was funded by UNCICP (now UNODC), Vienna. Thereafter, the Department for International Development (DfID), United Kingdom, funded the research and drafting, the dissemination and consultation process, and the finalization and translation of the Bangalore Principles, including the meeting of the Group held in Bangalore in 2001 and the roundtable meeting of civil law Chief Justices held at The Hague in 2002. DfID also provided funding to develop the survey instruments, to conduct pilot programmes in Uganda and Sri Lanka, for the management of the judicial integrity programme, and generally to sustain the Group between 2000 and 2003. Its funds were administered by the London office of Transparency International.

UNODC Vienna funded the third meeting of the Group held in Colombo in 2003, and the fourth and fifth meetings of the Group held in Vienna in 2005 and 2007 respectively.

From 2006, the Group was supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, Germany, which funded the sixth and seventh meetings of the Group held in Lusaka and Garmisch Partenkirchen respectively and provided funding to research and prepare the Draft Commentary on the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct and the Draft Statement of Measures for the Effective Implementation of the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct.

The eighth meeting of the Group held in Berlin was facilitated by Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), which organization has also very kindly undertaken the responsibility for maintaining the website of the Group.

Determinations by the Judicial Integrity Group

At its Preparatory Meeting in Vienna in 2000, it was agreed that research should be undertaken to create a survey instrument for the collection of data relating to judicial corruption in order that specific problem areas may be identified, and the effectiveness of subsequent reforms tracked. At the Second Meeting in Bangalore in 2001, the Coordinator presented (a) draft survey instruments designed to ascertain the extent of corruption within the judicial system, and (b) draft case audits designed to ascertain the procedural “road-blocks” responsible for delays in judicial proceedings.