Judicial reform award cites Hawai'i's efforts
Lawrence Okinaga is to receive the American Judicature Society's Justice Award, the highest given by the national judicial-reform organization. He is the first Hawai'i recipient, in recognition of his years of dedicated leadership in judicial administration and reform.
The American Judicature Society was founded in 1913 by Herbert Harley, a newspaper publisher from Manistee, Mich. Among early reforms proposed by the society was the appointment of judges through a merit-based selection process.
OKINAGA
This process, created in Hawai'i by the 1978 state Constitutional Convention, transformed the longstanding practice of appointments to the bench by the governor and chief justice, making it a structured selection process in which applicants' merits are reviewed and recommended to the appointing authority by the Judicial Selection Commission.
Hawai'i is among 32 states plus the District of Columbia that have adopted merit selection. Okinaga served on the first state Judicial Selection Commission, and later became chairman. He also served on the Commission on Judicial Conduct, and as chairman initiated and drafted new commission rules to provide advisory opinions for judges.
He later spearheaded organization of the judicature society's Hawai'i chapter to resolve issues affecting the judiciary.
The following articles suggest some of the ways in which the AJS — a collection of citizens and legal experts —affects the way courts operate here.
