In the spring of 1924, the Baltic sea coast territory of Klaipėda, formerly a region of East Prussia became an autonomous area administrated by the Republic of Lithuania. Given the mixed nationalities of the population, during the interwar period, Germany and Lithuania both pressured citizens to prefer one or the other nationality, which contributed to gradual radicalization and growing nationalist tendencies. The key outcome was the Kaunas process at the turn of 1934/35. Under the Law for the Protection of the Republic, 87 members of the Klaipėda national-socialist organizations CSA and SOVOG were convicted of conspiracy to annex the territory to Germany. The convictions led to an economic blockade of Lithuania by Germany and a massive pro-German propaganda campaign. The United Kingdom tried to settle the situation by increasing its trade activity with Lithuania, accompanied by diplomatic pressure on Lithuania to ease its stance against Germany. After Lithuania agreed to grant amnesties to those convicted of conspiracy, in 1936/37, German-Lithuanian economic relations were restored. However, in the late 1930s, the Republic of Lithuania became an easily blackmailed and diplomatically isolated state, forced to grant numerous concessions to its German minority population. The Lithuanian government...

La justice est un attribut fondamental de l’Etat moderne. Elle assure, dans unesociété démocratique, la sauvegarde de l’édifice normatif ainsi que la protection des droitset libertés. Une justice indépendante et efficace est un symbole de l’Etat de droit. Ellerévèle la réalité de la séparation des pouvoirs et consacre le règne du droit. Maisl’efficacité de tout appareil judiciaire dépend de la nature et de l’ampleur des moyens dontil dispose. Or, dans nombre d’Etats francophones, le système judiciaire connaît denombreuses faiblesses, liées tantôt aux avatars des processus de stabilisationdémocratique, tantôt aux situations plus fragiles de sortie de crise. La question durenforcement des capacités des institutions judiciaires se trouve ainsi posée. Et c’est surcette base que l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) a investi, depuisune trentaine d’années, le champ de la coopération juridique et judiciaire. Ayant inscrit lapromotion de la démocratie au coeur de son action politique, la Francophonie a pris desengagements forts et développé, en s’appuyant sur ses réseaux institutionnels, desprogrammes destinés à accompagner ses Etats membres dans le renforcement descapacités de leurs systèmes de justice. Cet engagement est perceptible dans le corpusnormatif de l’Organisation. Il marque la ferme volonté des Etats francophones d’ancrerleurs relations dans un cadre de coopération, attaché à la protection des droitsfondamentaux et à la régulation des pouvoirs majoritaires. La justice est donc désormaisérigée en priorité dans le champ des préoccupations francophones. Elle y est saisie tantaux niveaux national et international que dans sa dimension transitionnelle. / Justice is a fundamental attribute of modern States. In a democratic society, itguarantees the safeguard of the standard-setting framework as well as the protection ofrights. An independent and effective justice is a symbol of the rule of law. It illustrates theseparation of powers and establishes the primacy of law. But the efficiency of any judicialsystem depends on the nature and the extent of the resources at its disposal. Yet, inmany Francophone countries, the judicial system faces many weaknesses, sometimesrelated to the avatars of democratic stabilisation processes, sometimes to more fragilepost-crisis situations. So the question of the capacity development of the judicialinstitutions arises. For thirty years, the International Organization of La Francophonie(OIF) has entered the legal and judicial cooperation field on this basis. By including thepromotion of democracy at the heart of its political action, the OIF has indeed made strongcommitments and developed programs aimed at accompanying its member States in thecapacity development of their justice systems, thanks to its institutional networks. Thiscommitment can be seen in several statements of the Organization. It demonstrates thewill of the Francophone States to anchor their relationships in a cooperation framework,dedicated to the protection of fundamental rights and the regulation of majorities’ powers.Today, justice is consequently established as a priority in Francophone concerns. It isentered in both national and international level and in its transitional dimension