Although Kiribati is very much a developing country, Robin Millhouse QC, chief justice of the High Court of Kiribati, believes the tiny nation is "one of the most fortunate countries" in the world in terms of its social security.
The Kiribati government appointed Millhouse, an Australia-trained lawyer, as chief justice of the country's High Court at the end of 1999.
Millhouse, who attended the opening ceremony of the Taiwan-ese embassy in Kiribati on Jan. 9, said it is very difficult for Kiribati to train local lawyers.
"Kiribati's population is too small to support professional people like doctors or lawyers," Millhouse said. People interested in pursuing these professional careers have to go abroad to be educated, he added.
As Kiribati was a British colony until 1979, the British introduced their legal system into the country, the 74-year-old chief justice said.
Kiribati's legal system, therefore, is the same as Australia's, England's, Canada's, New Zealand's and a number of other Commonwealth countries. Millhouse said he did not find it difficult to get familiar with the Kiribati legal system.
Kiribati's outer islands usually do not have lawyers or qualified judges, so it is the court magistrates who deal with common cases in these places.
Millhouse, who deals with more important crimes and the bigger civil matters, makes the occasional visit to the outer islands.
Kiribati has a court of appeal, which consists of three judges.
"They come here by invitation to form the courts," Millhouse said.
Over the past couple of years, the judges came mostly from New Zealand, Australia, the UK or Canada because the law is the same, according to Millhouse.
Millhouse, now in his third term as chief justice of Kiribati's High Court, said only one judge was a local man.
Saying that he hoped more Kiribati people could be trained in New Zealand or Australia to be lawyers, Millhouse said there is now a law school for the Pacific nations in Vanuatu.
The education in the Vanuatu law school is completely in English and the books that the students read are also in English, Millhouse said.
Kiribati has no capital punishment. Its heaviest penalty is life imprisonment.
"There are some prisons on the outer islands built by the British, but they are not used very much," Millhouse said.
Millhouse said he did know the crime rate in Kiribati, but that most of the time he had enough cases to keep him occupied.
Policemen in Kiribati, Millhouse said, do not carry guns. They rarely encountered resistance in arresting criminals, unless the people were intoxicated, the judge said.
"I have sentenced somebody to a term of imprisonment, and he stood up in the dock and said `thank you,'" Millhouse said.
Samuel Chen (陳士良), Taiwan's ambassador to Kiribati, said the Kiribati people's religion might contribute to their peaceful society. People in the country are predominately Roman Catholics and Presbyterians, according to the ambassador.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS