Judges from China learn about legal system at LIC Courthouse
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Hon. Rudolph E. Greco, Jr. speaks to judges from China’s Hubei Higher People’s Court on Wednesday at Long Island City Courthouse. Eagle photo by Phineas Rueckert
By Phineas Rueckert
An unfamiliar language echoed across the chambers of the third floor courtroom at the Long Island City Courthouse Wednesday morning: Chinese.
Sixteen Chinese judges, all of them men, and their translator visited Queens to learn more about the US legal system. Seated in the ceremonial third-floor courtroom, they heard from law clerk Claudia Lanzetta, Cardozo Law professor Robert Collins and Queens County Supreme Court judge Rudolph E. Greco, Jr.
The group of judges came from Wuhan City, in eastern China, where they sit on the Hubei Higher People’s Court, the court below the Supreme People’s Court. The 128 People’s Courts across Hubei province hear an estimated 400,000 cases every year, similar to the amount of cases filed in New York filed in 2017 — 470,000.
The Civil Courthouse in Long Island City. Eagle photo by Phineas Rueckert
Collins, who organized the exchange, spoke to the judges about collaborative lawyering. Lanzetta told judges about New York’s alternative dispute resolution program, which offers a means of mediation that allows more than 95 percent of cases to be settled without litigation.
Greco, speaking last, spoke more broadly about the Queens court system.
“We have in our country such diversity that you have to be sensitive to so many different elements that come into the system that have to be considered,” he said. “People like you and me have their cases heard by people like you and me.”
Law clerk Claudia Lanzetta introduces Greco, Jr. to the group of judges. Eagle photo by Phineas Rueckert
“We try to be even-handed and we try to understand that there are a number of sides to the story,” he added.
Through a translator, the judges asked a number of questions over the course of the two hours of presentations.
“They seem very interested, they’ve been very participatory, they’ve had a lot of questions,” Lanzetta told the Eagle after the event.
The judges will spend a total of 12 days in the US, and plan to visit the Statue of Liberty and Chinatown in the afternoon.
