PHILIPSBURG:--- On March 29, Judge Mauritsz de Kort will give a lecture: “Joint Court of Justice & the Legal System on Sint Maarten” as part of a joint project, entitled, “The Law Matters to You” at the University of St. Martin. The event is scheduled for 7pm in room 202.
“The Law Matters to You” is a joint law lecture series that the Department of Communication and the University of St. Martin has organized; its aims are to provide law information to the public via a lecture presentation between 15 - 20 minutes and aimed towards a diverse demographic audience.
“This joint venture,” Head of DCOMM Rodney Richardson said, “will be very informative for the public. The speakers will provide information on a specific topic, and the audience will have an opportunity to be interactive and discuss the topic with the speakers and other audience members. So the public will get to learn more about the law than a superficial glance.”
President of USM Dr. Francio Guadeloupe said that “the lectures will be like a mini law lecture, aimed at bringing the subject of law closer to the people. For the people to get acquainted with the law intricate details, it is important to provide the information to the public. With these lectures and communication activities, the topic of law should become more common place to the different segments of the population.”
The Keynote Speaker for this first lecture will be Judge Mauritsz de Kort, who will speak on the Joint Court of Justice & the Legal System on Sint Maarten, including its structure and functioning.
In his post since 2011, Judge de Kort, who is on the Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten and of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, was born in Oranjestad, Aruba. He is domiciled in Sint Maarten as of 2015 where he currently hears civil and (of recent) bankruptcy cases.
De Kort was admitted to the Bar of the Joint Court of Justice of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba in 2000. He worked as a lawyer for six years with firms on Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten before undertaking the four-year judge training program.
De Kort attended Business School in Arnhem and Law School at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He read for his Intercollegiate Masters of Law at University of London (LSE, UCL, King’s College).
Off the bench, the Judge has an interest in art and heritage. He served as a board member of the Curaçao Museum until 2014. He is also a founding member of the Bishop Ellis Foundation for the Poor and Needy on Sint Maarten during his time as a lawyer.
As for the lecture series, it is aimed at informing and educating the general public of Sint Maarten in different areas of the law, namely, court system, criminal, international, tax, fiscal, real estate, civil code and others. There are four lectures scheduled for this year.
There will be a question and answer session. There are three other lectures on different areas of the law scheduled for the rest of the year.
