UMass McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies

Cameroon

Decentralization and Local Democracy: A Proposal for Citizen Empowerment in Cameroon, Mali and Senegal.. The project goals included promoting democratic participation in decision-making and the decentralization of governance in French-speaking Africa. U.S. State Department 1997.

Maasi Education Discovery Partnerships in Technology. Linked to the larger UMass Boston/Egerton University Kenya projects, the program is developing a computer and information technology certificate program, peer group mentoring and youth-at-risk outreach programs, distance learning, and community internet connectivity for training. Education for Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI)/USAID January 2003.

Partnership in Technology and Development, Egerton University Faculty of ARts and Social Sceinces, Njoro, Kenya.. A Partnership that is strengthening technology and information resources at Egerton, promoting local economic development initiatives in the Njoro area; improving Egerton's capacity to work with out-of-school and at-risk youth; and building a Social Sciences Computer Lab and a Cyber Café/Business Center. EDDI/USAID 2002.

Decentralization and Local Democracy: A Proposal for Citizen Empowerment in Cameroon, Mali and Senegal. The project goals included promoting democratic participation in decision-making and the decentralization of governance in French-speaking Africa. U.S. State Department 1997.

Decentralization and Local Democracy: A Proposal for Citizen Empowerment in Cameroon, Mali and Senegal, Phase II. The project goals included promoting democratic participation in decision-making and the decentralization of governance in French-speaking Africa. U.S. State Department 2000.

The Role of Government in a Democracy: A Proposal for Namibia. The project promoted efficient and effective local government and the institutionalization of democratic values, enhanced democratic participation in decision-making, encouraged reform of local government administration, and familiarized public administrators with comparative managerial challenges and approaches. U.S. State Department 1996.

Saint-Louis Regional Community Resource Center Sustainability Initiative, with Universite Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis. Seven separate UGB/Community working groups have been established (Youth Center, Women's Center, Telecentre, Cyber Café/Business Center, Poultry Production, Sewing/Tie Dye and World Space Radio Programming) and are working out of the new Regional Community Resource Center. EDDI/USAID, 2002.

Mulit-Function Community Resource Center for Northern Senegal, Universite Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis, Senegal.. Community Resource Center that is serving as a women's center, a small business development center, and a class room location for university-community educational programs in computer information technology instruction, agricultural and environmental management, entrepreneurship and civic education. (EDDI) 2001.

Partnership in Higher Education between Universite Gaston Berger and the John W. McCormack Institute. This parternship strengthened the African partner's educational missions of teaching, research, and service, contributed to the preparation of a responsible citizenry and a skilled workforce, and increased attention to development issues both on the campuses and among the two institutions' varied constituencies. ALO/USAID 1999.

Democracy, Local Government and Decentralization: Mali and Senegal: Phas II. The project goals promoted democratic participation in decision-making, decentralized patterns of governance, and institutionalization of democratic values through exchange between public and private leaders and citizens from two continents. U.S. Department of State 2000.

Decentralization and Local Democracy: A Proposal for Citizen Empowerment in Cameroon, Mali and Senegal. The project goals included promoting democratic participation in decision-making and the decentralization of governance in French-speaking Africa. U.S. State Department 1997.

Mayibuye Center - McCormack Institute Partnership - The Mayibuye Center at the University of Western Cape is serving as the archives for an oral history of the black liberation movement in South Africa based on McCormack Senior Fellow Padraig'O'Malley's decade-long project to capture the South African transition in the words of the actors themselves. Now totaling over 2,000 hours of taped interviews, the O'Malley audio recordings are being indexed and placed on CD-ROM for distribution to all schools and libraries in South Africa. January 2003.

Indaba at Arniston, SA - This remarkable program in conflict management brought all the constitutional Northern Irish leadership to South Africa for a series of workshops with South African President Mandela, cabinet ministers and high-ranking government officials involved in the dismantling of apartheid. May/June 1997.

Moot Court Pilot Project for China, Phase Two

Comparative Moot Court Pilot Pojrect for China: Judgets Working with Judges. - The John M. McCormack Institute, University of Massachusetts Boston, Massachusetts Judgets Conference (MJC) and the Institute for Transitional Economies (ITE), the Supreme People's Court of China, Tsingua Unviersity Law School, Sichuan Judges Conference, The People's Court of Jiangsu Court of Jiangsu Provience.. A program of moot courts in which leading judges, prosecutors, attorneys, and legal educators participated. The moot court included one civil case under United States rules to introduce key participants to aspects of American judicial procedure that make courts trusted arbiter in business cases; specifically to demonstrate the rule of evidence and the application of fundamental principles of due process throughout the system. The sessions were held in Beijing at Tsinghua University, and in Nanjing. The final phase of the program will take place in Cheng-du in September 2003. State Department 2001
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The Administration of Justice and the Rule of Law: A Proposal for an Exchange of Judges, Prosecutors, and Attorneys from the People's Republic of China Promoting Reform in the Chinese Justice System - The John W. McCormack Institute University of Massachusetts Boston, the Massachusetts Judges Conference, the Institute for Transitional Economies, the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procutratorate. This project promoted reform in the Chinese justice system by introducing a selected delegation of Chinese judges, prosecutors, and attorneys to the U.S. justice system. During the exchange, the importance of a justice system that is based on the rule of law and supports it was emphasized, especially with regard to economic development, both domestically and internationally. The project intended the expansion of the base of exchange between the U.S. partners and the Chinese justice system in order to lay the foundation for continued exchanges on issues of legal and government reform. The project brought a diverse group of twenty-one judges, prosecutors and attorneys to the United States for a series of workshops, briefings, and site visits that focused on the U.S. legal system and included opportunities to meet professional counterparts here. Topics covered fell into five broad areas: 1) the structure and functioning of the U.S. justice system and the relationships among the various parts of the system; 2) the rights afforded to the accused and how those rights are protected within the justice system; 3) the relationship between economic development and political stability on the one hand and a justice system ruled by law on the other; 4) how members of the justice system are credentialed, appointed, overseen and removed; 5) administrative procedures and management of the various parts of the justice system. State Department 1998.

Judicial Education Program, the John W. McCormack Institute University of Massachusetts Boston, the Massachusetts Judges Conference (MJC), Political Education Academy, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, U.S. Embassy Mongolia. In October 2002, a delegation of Massachusetts judges, legal professionals and McCormack Institute staff traveled Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to participate in Judicial Education Program. The week long fact-finding program, lead by Honorable Judge Patrick King, President of the Massachusetts Judges Conference, was hosted by the Political Education Academy and the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar. Follow-up programs on improving the relationship between the judiciary and print media, developing a juvenile justice system and developing a judges association are planned for 2003-2004. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, 2002.

Serbian Judicial Delegation, the John W. McCormack Institute University of Massachusetts Boston, the Massachusetts Judgets Conference (MJC), Supreme Court of Servia, Bar Association of Serbia, U.S. Embassy Belgrade. In March 2002, the McCormack Institute's Center for Democracy and Development, and the Massachusetts Judges Conference, a private organization of 350 Massachusetts judges, ran a highly successful judge-to-judge exchange program for an eight person judicial delegation from Serbia. The visit was lead by the President of the Supreme Court of Serbia, the Hon. Leposava Karamarkovic, the first woman to serve in this position, and the Hon. Omer Hadziomerovic, President of the Bar Association of Serbia and District Court Judge in Belgrade. The week-long program addressed the following topics: ethical considerations for the judiciary; case flow management; the interactive relationship between the press and the judiciary and the transparency of judicial records and proceedings; how to improve the court's relationship with the executive and legislative branches of government. Sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, 2002.

Protecting Intellectual Property Rights in Russia: Bench / Bar Education to Address Unique Problems within the Russian Legal Environment (Executive Summary). The McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the Massachusetts Judges Conference, the private association of Massachusetts State Judges, propose an exchange program for Russian judges, prosecutors, legal educators and private litigators focused on intellectual property rights protection, with a special concentration on copyright protection. (This proposal specifically addresses theme 4.d. in the current BECA RFP). The project builds on our current BECA-supported work on intellectual property rights protection with the Russian Supreme Commercial ("Arbitration") Court, and will integrate the Moscow City Commercial Court and the Russian Academy of Justice (which trains new judges and provides continuing judicial education in Russia) into our ongoing program.

Over the past two years of work with the Russian Supreme Commercial Court, we have identified one glaring, but hitherto not fully recognized, problem-the enormous gulf between industry litigators on the one hand and judges in the Russian commercial courts on the other over how to approach intellectual property rights protection. Simply put, industry litigators believe that only prosecution of criminal cases holds any promise; while the local and national commercial court judges absolutely believe that they have viable powers and approaches that are simply not being adequately (or even minimally) utilized. Our proposals for systemic Bench/Bar conferences, workshops and training sessions, growing out of and addressing this "disconnect" between judiciary and industry, promise to have lasting effects on increasing both intellectual property rights expertise and on improving prosecution rates-or, as we will propose, other positive resolution of intellectual property offenses--in Russia.

Intellectual Property Rights Protection for Russia: Bringing Western Approaches to the Russian Environment (Executive Summary). The John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the Massachusetts Judges Conference (the private association of the State's Judges) propose a program of exchanges and workshops for Russian lawyers, judges, distributors or licensing organizations, and press and media focused on intellectual property rights (IPR), with a special concentration on copyright protection for films/videos, music recordings, computer software and similar products subject to piracy.

Since 1997, the McCormack Institute and the Massachusetts Judges Conference have been engaged in a highly successful partnership to promote legal and judicial reform in Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Russia, and the Peoples Republic of China. Intellectual property rights have been a focus of each of those exchanges. The American lead institutions have precisely the kind of on-the-ground experience and perspective needed to make the Russian IPR project a success.

To ensure the widest possible audience for, and impact of, the project, we will partner on the ground in Russia with the Russian Guild of Court Reporters (an association of journalists specializing in legal and judicial coverage throughout the country) and the Russian Court Information Agency, a nonprofit organization distributing information on significant judicial precedents to the State Duma, the leading Russian mass media, and other legal and governmental bodies.

The most unique aspect of our Proposal is our intention to incorporate an extensive, multi-faceted media and public education campaign to gain the widest possible awareness of, and attention to, these vital IPR issues in Russia. All partners are prepared to begin this project in Russia immediately.

Reform of Court Administration for Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia: A Proposal for a Judicial Exchange Focusing on Efficient Court Administration - the John W. McCormack Institute University of Massachusetts Boston, the Massachusetts Judges Conference, the Institute for Transitional Economies, t he Federal Judicial Center, Washington, D.C.. A two phase project to promote an independent judiciary in the five Central European countries by exposing judicial and legal practitioners from those countries to U.S. court structures, to functions, practices and characteristics of the American judiciary, and to U.S. court management and administrative practices. During phase one, judge and one attorney from each of the five targeted countries visited the United States for two weeks. Week one was devoted to training conducted by the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. The second week took place in the Boston, where delegates met with judges, court officers, prosecutors, attorneys, and correction officials and observed first hand the operations of the judicial system and methods used to assure that the administration of the courts is both efficient and fair. During phase two, judges from Massachusetts visited the five countries for further consultation and assistance with reform efforts. State Department 1999/2000.