Unique Egyptian -Moroccan judiciary agreement to improve courts

The court system in many of the Arab states is slow and has come under the scrutiny of pioneering efforts to improve it through efficiency, quality, and transparency, for its implications for a more stable commercial and social system.

Last month, Moroccan Justice Minister Omar Azziman said Morocco pins great hopes on courts to improve the whole judiciary system. The minister said Morocco is seeking to modernize the judiciary system through rationalization, computerization and more transparency.The Moroccan government counts on newly-created trade courts to fully play their role in the consolidation of the rule of law in the economic field, to restore the confidence of investors and upgrade investments, he said.

Yesterday, the Moroccan supreme court and the Egyptian cassation court were twinned under an agreement signed here.

Under the accord, the two judiciary bodies pledge to exchange top executives, advisors and judges, and to hold training sessions, seminars and specialized encounters.

The covenant was signed on the Moroccan side by first chairman of the supreme court, Driss Dahhak, and Hassan El Oufir, prosecutor at this court.

President of the Egyptian Cassation Court, Ahmad Medhat Meraghi, who initialed the covenant, said this is the first accord of the kind between cassation courts in the arab world. The accord, he said, will contribute to consolidating cooperation between the two countries' judiciary bodies.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Minister of Justice Farouk Seif al-Nassr spoke of continued judicial cooperation between Egypt and the U.S. Al-Nassr said that his talks yesterday with the US ambassador in Cairo, Daniel Kurtzer, tackled modernizing the courts' role and introducing technology to increase the efficiency of the court system.

The minister added that the experiment of using an American-style administrative system in courts started in north Cairo court and Ismaila's court.

The U.S. and the Egyptian ministers of justice agreed on learning from and transferring the US experience to the Egyptian courts.