Week in Review (23 Aug. 2010 - 27 Aug. 2010)

I turned in my first case assignment this week. It was an appeal from the High Commercial Court (a relatively recently established specialized court in the justice system). The assignment came my way because the pleadings were in French (though, some court documents were still in Kinyarwanda). Working in French in terms of legal documents came a lot easier than I expected. With the aid of a French-English legal dictionary that I brought with me, and a very handy online dictionary, I was able to get through the assignment in a good amount of time (although far less productive than I am used to in the States, working in my native language and having Westlaw and Lexis to assist with research). The absolute most fascinating part of the assignment was that Rwanda is still in a civil law system, so there was no precedent to guide the outcome of this case (which, in the states, would have been quite simple). For example, the pleadings, after citing to the relevant law, used persuasive authorities like law textbooks to support their positions and interpretations of the law to the facts of the case. It seemed like a classroom academic exercise more than resolving a commercial dispute at the highest Court of the country.

What I can say about the case is that it involved contract law, and that Rwanda uses essentially the Belgian Civil Code from the 1880s. Yes, you read that correctly. There have been some modifications to the law, but seemingly not many. In the end, the Code is much like the U.S. common law of contracts, with fewer defenses to enforcement of contracts, and less specificity. And for all you MPs in Kigali reading this . . . take a look at the Uniform Commercial Code and think about it . . . think about it . . .

My other work at the Court consists of policy-based administrative reports, which is a vague way of saying “trying to make the justice system more efficient.” At all levels of the judiciary, access to the system is seemingly not a difficulty, but backlogs of cases are a problem. Hopefully this will improve in the coming months.
The week ahead . . . more research . . . more reports. I also start my continued coursework for my LL.M. degree, and two afternoons will connect via Skype (or try to) to the class to participate remotely.

More updates to come soon.