- EJTN was delighted to welcome a fact-finding delegation from the Judges Academy of Taiwan.
- The visit was in support of the Academy’s efforts to boost judges’ continuing education to ensure more sophisticated quality of verdicts and the best practice.
EJTN was delighted to receive a delegation in late April of this year from the Judges Academy of Taiwan. Responsible for the continuing education needs of Taiwan’s judges, the Academy was on a fact-finding mission to several European countries’ judicial training organisations, including EJTN, to help bolster judges’ continuing education in Taiwan.
The objective of the visit was to discover the European judicial education training system, appreciate the cooperative efforts between Europe’s judicial institutions and understand how training programs and subjects are prioritised and ultimately designed. Post-training evaluation was also an additional focus area of the visit. This is a field where EJTN has been particularly active in, producing its Judicial Training Methods Guidelines for Evaluation of Judicial Training Practices manual, which is a hands-on resource for evaluating training activities.
Representing the Academy during this visit was, Chan-Chun Chou, Judge & President, Yu-Shun Kao, Judge & Chief Secretary, Yueh-Chen Yu, Judge & Head of the R&D Department and Chin-Lan Lo, Executive Officer of the R&D Department. Chyi Chiu, Judge at the Taiwan High Court and Adjunct Lecturer of the Academy was also part of the visiting delegation.
Focus areas
The delegation had several key areas they wished to focus interest on. These included the prioritisation and selection of issues and subjects of significance for judges, the backgrounds of trainers involved with EJTN’s training activities, EJTN’s eLearning activities and post-learning feedback gathering. The delegation was also particularly keen on concrete training opportunities within areas such as decision making in sentencing, reasoning and rhetoric in verdicts and the strengthening of judges’ abilities across key daily skills.
For its part, EJTN addressed the visiting delegation’s focus areas and questions and provided a comprehensive overview to the lifecycle of EJTN’s training activities as well as EJTN’s Exchange Programme and the activities of EJTN’s Judicial Training Methods Working Group. Future potential cooperation between the Academy and EJTN was also explored, and there were hands-on demo sessions of EJTN’s various platforms and virtual resources.
Sharing and exchanging
The Judges Academy of Taiwan provides for ultra-modern premises and facilities along with a diversified catalogue of training. Its 2018 programme, taking in 180 courses, offers training within an incredibly wide portfolio, addressing topics within civil, criminal, administrative and family law along with information management, accounting, statistics, civil service ethics, public relations and media interaction and humanities and arts.
EJTN is honoured to receive delegations from around the world and is always ready to share its considerable experience, knowledge and technical expertise within the judicial training sphere. Visiting delegations to EJTN, such as that of the Judges Academy of Taiwan, provide ideal opportunities to exchange knowledge and experience, solidify trust amongst the international judiciary and build vital international networks.