So..That is what is wrong with Louisiana. It's French

L.a. Trained Lawyers

Find Niche in Iraq

By DOUG SIMPSON,
Associated Press Writer
Sat Jul 16, 2:12 AM ET



BATON ROUGE, La. - Iraq's prosecution of insurgents is getting a helping hand from U.S. Army lawyers who were schooled in Louisiana, the only state that also has courts rooted in the French legal system that allows judges to act as inquisitors.

One of the lawyers, Capt. Dan Stigall, said he found similarities between the two systems as soon as he opened an Iraqi law book.

"It was interesting to open it up and say, 'Gosh, we do share so much,'" said Stigall, who earned his law degree at Louisiana State University and spent six months working with Iraq's courts last year.

Louisiana is the only U.S. state with a legal system based on French-style "civil law," which gives more discretion to judges and relies less on precedents than so-called "common law," the Anglo-American foundation of the other states' systems.

The differences appear subtle to non-lawyers, but legal experts say a background in Louisiana law helps an American lawyer in dealing with Iraqi judges, who take the lead role in questioning witnesses at criminal trials.

"I think it's a tremendous advantage," said Christopher L. Blakesley, a civil law expert who taught at LSU's law school for 20 years and is now at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Another bonus: The judges were pleased and surprised to work with Americans who have an understanding of Iraq's system of justice.

"It showed we were making an effort to bring in someone who understood the true basis for their law. There was the sense that it would show respect for the underpinnings of their legal system," said Lt. Col. Bernard McLaughlin, a Louisiana-trained lawyer in the state's National Guard who led the first eight-member American team that oversaw the prosecutions of insurgents.

McLaughlin, a mediator in civilian life, was succeeded in overseeing the prosecutions by another Louisiana National Guard member and civilian prosecutor, Lt. Col. Gary Nunn, who was succeeded by yet another Louisiana prosecutor, and a Louisiana judge is lined up to take the job after him.

McLaughlin assisted in the development of the Central Criminal Court, an institution created by U.S. forces but staffed by Iraqi judges and lawyers. The American prosecutors work with soldiers to collect evidence and give testimony, which is then handed over to Iraqi prosecutors.

The court was created, McLaughlin said, to prosecute insurgent fighters because the military was concerned that Iraq's provincial courts would be influenced by anti-Americanism and be more likely to acquit those guilty of attacks.

Since the Central Criminal Court was created in 2003, 532 suspects have been tried on charges such as murder and assault of American forces, with 348 convictions, most of them for possession of illegal weapons. Higher-profile suspects, such as Saddam Hussein, are tried in a separate Iraqi tribunal.

A highlight for the legal staff was the conviction in May of an Iraqi accused of using a roadside bomb to kill Staff Sgt. Henry E. Irizarry, a New Yorker who was attached to a Louisiana National Guard unit. It was the second time the court found a suspect guilty of murder in the death of an American soldier. The suspect, Ziyad Hassan, received a 15-year prison sentence.

Louisiana lawyers are a logical choice for such work because they've been trained in all the basics of both civil law and common law.

"There's frankly no place outside Louisiana in this country where that's taught," Blakesley said.

The students have that requirement even though the traces of civil law in Louisiana's system have been diluted since it was created in 1804, influenced by cases from federal courts and from other state courts. The former French and Spanish colony did away with the inquisitorial system of criminal trials — in which the judge questions all witnesses and suspects — after it became a state, in 1812. It now has the adversarial, prosecution-versus-defense system that all other states have.

But civil law remains in Louisiana's noncriminal courts, which deal with lawsuits between individuals and companies.

That means the state's lawyers are familiar with some fundamental aspects of Iraqi's legal system, including what's known as "legal custom" — the idea that a judge's ruling will never be based on a single precedent, but on a body of rulings.

"In America, one decision from the high court is binding on all other courts. In Iraq, it would take a series of decisions to create a custom," Blakesley said. "A common law lawyer would not have a clue about that."