Articling Students, Kosovo “Supreme Court Bulletin” Project and Canadian Lawyers Abroad

I thought Slaw readers might be interested in some international co-operation in producing legal information“Kosovo Law Centre and Heenan Blaikie LLP Partner on Pro Bono Project” Canadian Lawyers Abroad-Avocats Canadiens à L’étranger Newsletter, Vol. 1 (December 2005) 3, online: Canadian Lawyers Abroad.. Nine months ago, one of our articling students, Ryan Teschner was approached by Pro Bono Law Ontario Executive Director, Lynn Burns with an introduction to Catherine McKenna and Yasmin Shaker, co-founders of Canadian Lawyers AbroadFor more information about Canadian Lawyers Abroad, visit their website. .

At the time, CLA had started a relationship with the Kosovo Law Centre, an independent, non-governmental, “legal think-tank” based in PristinaThe Kosovo Law Centre (KLC) was established in June 2000, as an independent, nonprofit, non-governmental organisation (NGO). It was founded by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Mission in Kosovo (OSCE/OMIK), Department of Human Rights and Rule of Law.. The KLC undertakes a number of program initiatives aimed at “strengthening the professional skills of Kosovar legal talent”, with a view to “assisting all of Kosovo’s citizens in achieving a greater understanding of the law and legal process.” See also the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s website.

The students were asked to prepare decisions of the Kosovo Supreme Court for publication in the “Supreme Court Bulletin”. The KLC established this project in an effort to “increase the transparency of Kosovo’s legal system, improve the written product of the Supreme Court and lower courts, contribute to safeguarding the independence and impartiality of the judiciary and allow Kosovars to follow and understand important case law.”

The project was set up so that they would receive raw translated decisions. Members of the firm would then proofread and edited , the decisions to ensure proper use of the English language, consistency in legal terminology between decisions, and overall flow of each independent decision.

They began receiving electronic versions of the decisions in October 2005. Once the decisions were proofread using the Track Change function, they were deposited in a new folder. These edited decisions were reviewed to ensure consistency in terminology, etc, and were then e-mailed to the contact at the KLC for final review and publication.

By December 2005 the first volume of the “Supreme Court Bulletin” was successfully published, with an acknowledgment of thanks for the Canadian input. The project was also profiled in The Lawyers WeeklyTim Wilbur, “Developing countries need business lawyers” The Lawyers Weekly, Vo. 26, No. 2 (12 May 2006), 1 and 19..