AN EFFICIENT justice system should be able to give legal assistance to its citizens and guarantee execution of its court decisions, said Russian Federation Chief Justice Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Lebedev who received a Doctor of Laws degree, honoris causa from UST, last Oct. 18 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex Auditorium.
“Justice accessibility should be served by guaranteeing judicial protection of rights and freedom of every person,” said Lebedev, who represented the Russian judiciary in the Global Forum on Liberty and Prosperity hosted by the Supreme Court last Oct. 18 to 20.
New Rector Fr. Ernesto Arceo, O.P., upon consultation with Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, granted Lebedev’s conferment.
“Since he became chief justice of the Russian Supreme Court last July 1989, he embarked on the development and improvement of the Russian judicial system,” Faculty of Civil Law Dean Alfredo Benipayo, who petitioned for Lebedev’s conferment, told the Varsitarian.
Lebedev obtained his Law degree from the Law Faculty of the Moscow Lomonosov State University in 1968.
Before he became people’s judge in his district from 1970 to 1977, Lebedev worked as an engineer in the personnel department at the Russian Ministry of Industrial Construction directorate the Moscow.
From 1977 to 1984, Lebedev was chairman of the Zheleznodorozhny District People’s Court. He was deputy chairman of the Moscow City Court from 1984 to 1986 before he became chairman from 1986 to 1989.
Other prominent recipients of the honoris causa in the University were former presidents Sergio Osmena, Sr., Manuel Quezon, Manuel Roxas, and Corazon Aquino, Gen. Douglas McArthur, Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon of Spain, and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization director-general Koichiro Matsuura. Marc Laurenze C. Celis
