On Monday, 21 September 2026, a high-level meeting was held with His Honor Christophe Soulard, First President of the Court of Cassation of the French Republic (the Supreme Court equivalent in the French Republic), at the Court of Cassation in Paris.
The high-level meeting provided an important opportunity for the leadership of the two judiciaries to discuss and exchange legal professional ideas, judicial cooperation, institutional development, and the strengthening of the rule of law.
His Honor Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay Sr. expressed profound appreciation to First President Soulard for granting the audience, describing the engagement as both a personal honor and an important occasion for the Supreme Court and the Liberian Judiciary.
He emphasized the longstanding friendship between Liberia and France, founded on shared commitments to Liberty, Human dignity, Justice, and the rule of law. While acknowledging the differences between France’s civil-law tradition and Liberia’s common-law system, the Chief Justice emphasized that both judiciaries share the fundamental responsibility of administering justice and protecting citizens’ rights.
Expanding on judicial cooperation at the meeting, Chief Justice Gbeisay emphasized Liberia’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the country’s judicial system, including expanding magisterial courts and judicial complexes, digitizing judicial records, introducing Judicial Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability mechanisms, and broader efforts to improve judicial performance and public confidence in the Judiciary.
He also expressed interest in learning from France’s extensive experience in Judicial administration, Case management, Judicial training, digitalization, judicial efficiency, ethics, accountability, and alternative dispute resolution.
The Chief Justice also emphasized that judicial cooperation should be reciprocal and mutually beneficial. Liberia, he noted, has valuable experiences to share, particularly in post-conflict justice, the interaction between customary and statutory law, and justice delivery in resource-constrained environments.
A key area discussed was establishing closer institutional links between Liberia’s James A.A. Pierre Judicial Institute and France’s École Nationale de la Magistrature (ENM).
The Liberian side proposed exploring opportunities for Liberian judges and magistrates to participate in short-term training, professional exchanges, study programs, seminars, and other capacity-building initiatives, including the possibility of Liberian judicial officers participating annually in appropriate programs. Such cooperation, the Liberian side emphasized, would create a bridge for mutual learning, institutional strengthening, and shared advancement of justice and the rule of law.
The two sides also discussed potential cooperation in digital case management, electronic judicial records, court administration, reducing case delays and judicial backlogs, and strengthening judicial ethics, professional standards, discipline, and institutional accountability.
Given the prevalence and complexity of land and community disputes in Liberia, the Chief Justice further identified mediation, conciliation, and other alternative dispute-resolution mechanisms as areas where French experience could be particularly valuable.
Chief Justice Gbeisay expressed Liberia’s interest in developing regular communication between the leadership of the two courts, reciprocal judicial visits and delegations, exchanges of legal and judicial knowledge, appropriate sharing of judgments and jurisprudence, joint seminars and conferences, and cooperation in relevant international judicial forums.
In this connection, the Liberian side proposed concluding a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Supreme Court of Liberia and the Court of Cassation of France as a framework for sustained judicial cooperation. The Chief Justice requested that the French side consider providing a draft framework for such an MoU for further discussion between the two institutions.
He emphasized that any technical cooperation developed between the two judiciaries would be pursued with transparency, accountability, and a clear institutional purpose. Chief Justice Gbeisay also proposed a visit for First President Soulard to see the Temple of Justice in Liberia, expressing hope that the engagement in Paris would mark the beginning of a deeper and enduring relationship between the judicial institutions of Liberia and France.
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