Exchanging ideas about justice: LaBuda in Africa

Posted 8/21/12

GHANA — New York State Judge and Surrogate Frank J. LaBuda recently visited a couple of countries in Africa as part of the Rule of Law Program, a U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for …

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Exchanging ideas about justice: LaBuda in Africa

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GHANA — New York State Judge and Surrogate Frank J. LaBuda recently visited a couple of countries in Africa as part of the Rule of Law Program, a U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development program that stresses democratic principles of government and justice in emerging countries throughout the world. In Ghana, he was invited by the Honorable Nene Amegatcher, president of the Ghana Bar Association, to meet with the chief judge of Ghana, Georgina Theodora Wood, the first woman to hold that office. LaBuda found that the subject of most interest to the Ministry of Justice and judges in Ghana was the American grand jury system for charging felony crimes.

LaBuda also lectured at the Coastal Cape University to Ghanian law enforcement and military police on the issue of stop-and-frisk and search warrants. Ghana, a former English colony, has adopted some of the English common law system of justice.

On his trip LaBuda made another stop in Benin which, as a former French colony, has adopted the French administrative system of justice. There he had the opportunity to lecture students and meet with the judiciary. At a meeting in Cotonou, the capital city, he found that the Benin judges were most interested in the American system of plea bargaining to help alleviate their lengthy backlog of cases. The students, however, were most interested in human rights and American Constitutional law.

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