Published: May 29, 2008 02:40 pm            

CHRISTY: World justice

The world is flat they say — meaning that information travels at such a speed and quantity that every country is now in direct competition with every other country, no matter where on the globe you sit geographically. Tax rates, quality of education, water, food and climate now are all in play as countries attempt to develop themselves in the next century.

Physically, we can look at Dubai, which is completely rebuilding itself to be competitive fifty years from now, when oil won’t rule the Middle East, but international business and tourism will. Twenty-five percent of the world’s construction crane’s are now located in Dubai, an amazing statistic.

Monetarily we can look to Europe, where several disparate countries with thousands of years of history put those traditions aside to form one currency, the Euro, which is uniting that region into an economic powerhouse. The American dollar now stands at 63 cents against the Euro, and one sports journal reported recently that we may no longer see the best of the European hockey players in the NHL because other leagues in other countries are now able to out-bid the NHL for talent. Sticking with hockey for a moment, the American dollar has fallen so far that Canadian market franchises are now profitable while franchises in US cities struggle. Unthinkable only 10 years ago.

While there is no doubt in this writer’s mind that we live in the best country on the planet and have given the world a serious measuring stick for how to govern its people, we cannot stop looking for ways to improve ourselves.

To that end, Adam Liptak of the New York Times recently published an article which tackled the complicated issue of whether electing Judges or appointing Judges makes more sense. It’s an interesting debate, until you consider how the rest of the world handles their justices.

Liptak writes that the US is virtually alone in electing its judges, with most other stable countries having a rigorous training program which can take years to complete. He cites a judge in Toulouse, France, who had to pass a 4-day rigorous exam just to be accepted into a 27-month training program for justices. How rigorous? In some years fewer than five percent survive the training and go on to become judges.

Contrast this with our system where anyone can run for a judgeship and serve, regardless of qualification. Once elected, the new judge takes to the job of meting out justice with little or no training whatsoever.

As with anything, once you start digging on a subject you can find arguments supporting both sides. Our nation is addicted to elections of any and all kinds. The amount of “jobs” we elect people to dwarfs any other country. It’s as if we invented the electoral system and we will forever show the world it’s the best way to choose any office. But some of the people who speak out for a better system have quite a bit of knowledge and experience — such as former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who has condemned the practice of electing judges. Say’s O’Connor “no other country in the world does this because they realize you’re not going to get fair and impartial judges that way.”

Now, in a flat world, we in WNY have the chance to completely rebuild a region and mold it in such a way that we attract commerce, tourism and population. We don’t need to resort to blaming New York City for any of our ills. We can rebuild infrastructure using “green” technology. We can re-mold our judicial system to stand alone — within our country — as the most highly trained and cutting edge system in the state, and nation.

Thankfully we’ve avoided any serious judicial crisis of confidence for more than two hundred years. Should we wait until we have one? Do we need to look any further then the eroding confidence within the State Police hierarchy, where they allowed politics to invade decision-making to spawn Troopergate, which is laying bare our state patronage system and has now cost two families dearly?

We talk about raising the bar of political debate above whether someone inhaled, or making elections solely about who slept with whom. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if Albany was in gridlock about the world judicial situation, and whether elected judges or highly trained “academy” judges were better for its citizens? “We’re not going to come home, said Assemblyman so-and-so, until we give the people the best judicial system in the world.”

Sometimes change happens at the margin’s, where no one is really paying attention. And sometimes building an economic engine which grows to dominate and thrive involves tangential things such as quality schools, solid infrastructure, and an above-reproach police and judicial system. We are so close on all of these things. Whether we drift further away from, or closer to, perfection, is worth debating.

Tom Christy is the founder of FAIR Government, a non-political and non-editorial educational foundation dealing with local government issues. www.fair-government.org. He encourages communication and can be reach via e-mail at aim1986@mac.com.

        

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