From December 17-20, 2012, CLDP conducted, in Baghdad, a workshop on the role of Iraqi judges in adjudicating disputes involving letters of credit.  The workshop was led by Federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Southern District of New York and was part of CLDP’s program of technical assistance to Iraq‘s Judiciary, and building capacity within the new commercial courts. These courts have jurisdiction over commercial disputes involving at least one foreign party. Iraq’s Higher Judicial Council selected fifteen judges from both trial and appellate courts in at least ten different provinces across Iraq to participate in the workshop, to ensure that knowledge imparted during the workshop would reach all levels of the Iraqi judiciary.  During the closing ceremony, the Chief Judge of Iraq’s new commercial court, Judge Amir Al-Shammari, who was present for the opening and the closing of the workshop, commented that CLDP’s programs have resulted in many useful recommendations to modernize Iraq’s laws and to adopt crucial international treaties that will make Iraq’s legal environment more conducive to international trade and investment. On December 27, in its review of Iraqi press, the US Embassy in Iraq highlighted favorable coverage of the CLDP workshop.