Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno and British Ambassador Peter Beckingham will lead the ceremonial turn-over and formal launching of the Philippine Judicial Academy’s (PHILJA) Capacity Building on Public and Private International Law Issues for the Philippine Judiciary on December 12, 2007 at the Justices’ Lounge, New Supreme Court Building, Padre Faura, Manila.

The Project, funded by the British Embassy, is done in partnership with the Ateneo Law School Center for International Economic Law, whose team of Ateneo Law professors authored the Manual and Curriculum of the Project.  This team is composed of Dean Cesar L. Villanueva, Professors Edzyl Josef G. Magante, Anthony A. Abad, Hans Leo J. Cacdac, Jeremy Gatdula, and Ruby U. Alvarez.

Using the Capacity Building Manual and Curriculum, PHILJA will conduct a series of seminar-workshops for selected commercial court judges and research attorneys from the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and Court of Tax Appeals in the first quarter of 2008.

The seminar-workshops aim to better equip the Judiciary in handling issues and resolving disputes involving public and private international law, and to generate broader understanding and awareness of contemporary public and private international law issues that have commercial and economic implications.