MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES

CM Documents

CM(2024)4

8 January 2024[1]

1488th meeting, 7-8 February 2024 10 Legal questions   10.2 European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) Abridged report of the 41st plenary meeting (Strasbourg, 4-5 December 2023) Item to be considered by the GR-J at its meeting on 31 January 2024

 

Opening of the meeting and adoption of the agenda

The European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) held its 41^st plenary meeting in Strasbourg on 4 and 5 December 2023 with Mr Francesco DEPASQUALE (Malta) in the Chair.

The agenda of the meeting is contained in the Appendix. The full report of the meeting including the list of participants is available at https://rm.coe.int/abridged-project-report-41st-plenary-of-the-cepej-cepej-2023-/1680adf3eb

List of items for decision by the Committee of Ministers

The CEPEJ invites the Committee of Ministers to take note of the 2024-2025 CEPEJ Activity Programme as well as the abridged report of the 41^st plenary meeting (4-5 December 2023).

List of items for information of the Committee of Ministers

The CEPEJ:

§     adopted the “Assessment tool for the operationalisation of the European Ethical Charter on the use of artificial intelligence in judicial systems and their environment”[2] and invited the CEPEJ Secretariat to organise a test by applying it to an Artificial Intelligence system in order to further promote the Charter and its operationalisation, and thus contribute to the responsible development of Artificial Intelligence applications in judicial systems;

§     adopted the “Report on case weighting in public prosecution services”[3];

§     adopted “the Concept note on the database on backlog reduction practices”[4];

§     adopted the “Guidelines on online Alternative Dispute Resolution”[5];

§     took note of the information concerning the preparation of the next CEPEJ Evaluation Report “European judicial systems” (Edition 2024, 2022 data) and notably of the structure of the report and the timetable of its preparation, took note of the work in progress within the Working Group on Evaluation (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL) to increase the support provided to CEPEJ national correspondents and to further improve the visibility of the report, reminded its members to ensure that the national correspondents respect the deadlines for data collection and to especially avoid changes in the data used for standardisation (GDP, number of inhabitants) after 1 June 2024;

§     encouraged delegations to contact the Secretariat with a view to organising peer reviews or specific missions to support the collection and quality control of data for the next cycle;

§     welcomed the continued co-operation with the European Commission, on the basis of the CEPEJ's own evaluation methodology, on: (i) an annual study on the functioning of the judicial systems in the EU member States, (ii) the annual evaluation of the functioning of the judicial systems in the beneficiaries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia), (iii) the annual evaluation of the functioning of judicial systems in the “Eastern Partnership” countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine), took note of the on-going discussions concerning the possible transfer of certain data collected from CEPEJ to EUROSTAT and entrusted the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL with the task of continuing this co-operation, which reinforces the preeminent role of the CEPEJ in the field of evaluation of justice, as well as the synergies between the European Union and the Council of Europe in this field;

§     took note of the document “How to evaluate the quality of judges' work: a comparative analysis”[6], which will serve as a basis for the development of guidelines in this area, possibly finalised before the next plenary meeting;

§     took note of the work in progress on the tool to analyse the length of the steps of the civil procedure[7];

§     welcomed the finalisation of the HELP-CEPEJ course on “Quality of justice: the work of the CEPEJ” that is available on the HELP (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals) platform of online training courses and includes different modules in the fields of quality of justice, evaluation of judicial systems, cyberjustice and Artificial Intelligence, mediation and judicial time management;

§     adopted the CEPEJ 2024-2025 Activity Programme^[8] anddecided to submit it to the Committee of Ministers to take note of it;

§     entrusted its Bureau to appoint its working groups’ members by taking into account the proposals presented by the members of the CEPEJ.

Resource implications

The financing of the activities described in this report is assured.

Evaluation of completed activities

The CEPEJ:

§     took note of the progress in the implementation of the “Revised Roadmap to ensure the appropriate follow-up of the CEPEJ European Ethical Charter on the use of artificial intelligence in judicial systems and their environment”[9] and in particular of the work of the CEPEJ Artificial Intelligence Advisory Board (AIAB), the finalisation of the work on the operationalisation of the CEPEJ Charter and the progressive establishment of the Resource Centre on Cyberjustice and Artificial Intelligence, and invited its members to submit information on relevant cyberjustice and artificial intelligence systems via a dedicated online form on the webpage of the Resource Centre;

§     took note of the activities of the European Cyberjustice Network (ECN) currently composed of 87 members and 37 observers, and welcomed the opening of its thematic webinars to the CEPEJ Network of Pilot Courts and the CEPEJ members;

§     took note of the ongoing activities, achievements and next steps of the co-operation programmes presented in the synthesis document[10] and the presentation by project co-ordinators and managers concerning Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kosovo*, Latvia, Malta, Republic of Moldova, Tunisia and the South Programme V, as well as of a brief presentation of a future programme with Morocco that should start in 2024;

§     took note of the call for expressions of interest to be launched by the Secretariat mid-December for the pool of experts for co-operation programmes, for which the deadline for applications is 31 January 2024.

Other observations

The CEPEJ:

§     took note of the information provided by delegations on a number of significant developments in their countries since June 2023;

§     thanked the French Ministry of Justice for the excellent organisation of the Award Ceremony of the Crystal Scales of Justice Prize in Paris on 4 October 2023, thanked also Ms Sonya Djemni-Wagner (France), Chair of the jury of this Prize and member of the Bureau of the CEPEJ, as well as the members of the jury for their valuable commitment and the added value of their analysis and welcomed the quality of the initiatives received and encouraged the member States to promote them;

§     congratulated the winner of the 2023 edition of the Crystal Scales of Justice Prize: "Kids in Court Game (KiCGame)” presented by the Cyprus Judicial Training School and “Hope For Children” CRC Policy Center (Cyprus), and also the institutions which received a special mention: “Facility Dogs Europe – FYDO” (Victim Support Europe, Belgium, France, Italy) and “Civil and criminal chamber specialised in environmental and urbanism matters” (Court of appeal of Mons, Belgium) and thanked them for their detailed presentations;

§     took note of the launch of the 3^rd Crystal Scales of Justice Prize – Junior Edition;

§     thanked the participants of a Study session on Artificial intelligence (AI) in the service of justice which took place at the beginning of the plenary meeting and in particular Mr Marek Świerczyński (Poland) for moderating this session, Mr Jan Spoenle (Germany) who spoke about AI support for the processing of mass trials, Mr Pedro Alexandre Monteiro Almeida (Portugal) who spoke about Generative AI for a practical guide to access to justice, Mr Jacques Bühler (Switzerland) who spoke about anonymisation of court decisions through AI, and Mr Javier Hernández (Spain) who spoke about machine learning applied to judicial hearings, for the high quality of their presentations;

§     thanked the President of the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors (CCPE) and the Secretariat of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE) for their presentations of the ongoing work within both Councils and their proposals to consolidate the co-ordination and co-operation with the CEPEJ;

§     took note of the information provided by the observers: the European Expertise and European Institute (EEEI), the International Union of Judicial Officers (UIHJ), the European Union of Rechtspfleger and court clerks (EUR) and the Council of the European Bars and Law Societies (CCBE), as well by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the field of justice;

§     took note that the 42^nd plenary meeting of the CEPEJ will take place in Strasbourg on 18 and 19 June 2024, and that all the dates of the other CEPEJ meetings are indicated in the calendar which is on the CEPEJ website.

§ 

Appendix: Agenda

1.             Opening of the meeting

2.             Workshop session: "Artificial intelligence (AI) in the service of justice - concrete examples of implementation"

a.         AI support for the processing of mass trials

b.         Generative AI for a practical guide to access to justice (GPJ)

c.         Anonymisation of Court decisions through AI (ANOM)

d.         Voice to text, machine learning applied to judicial hearings

3.            Recent development in the field of justice in member and observers States

4.            Evaluation of judicial systems (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL)

a.         2024 evaluation cycle (2022 data) – Preparation of the CEPEJ Evaluation report on European judicial systems

b.         Data collection support and peer evaluation

c.         Use and dissemination of the Report

d.         Co-operation with the European Union

e.         Study on the functioning of judicial systems in the member States of the European Union (EU Justice Scoreboard)

f.          Eurostat data

g.         Dashboard Western Balkans

h.         Justice Dashboard Eap (Eastern Partnership countries)

5.         Joint work on artificial intelligence (CEPEJ-GT-QUAL/CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST)

a.      Resource Centre on Cyberjustice and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

b.      Artificial Intelligence Advisory Body (AIAB)

6.            Quality of justice (CEPEJ-GT-QUAL)

a.      Follow-up to the European Ethical Charter on the use of artificial intelligence in judicial systems and their environment: Assessment tool for the operationalisation of the AI Ethical Charter

b.      How to assess the quality of the work of judges: comparative analysis

7.            Judicial time management (CEPEJ-SATURN)

a.      Case weighting in public prosecution services

b.      Database on backlog reduction practices

c.      Tool to analyse the different timeframes according to the stages of the procedure

d.      Follow-up to the adoption of the Backlog Reduction Tool

8.            Cyberjustice and artificial intelligence (CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST)

a.      Draft guidelines on online alternative dispute resolution

 

9.              Co-operation activities of the CEPEJ

10.            Development of online training modules on CEPEJ tools

11.            CEPEJ programme of activities 2024-2025

12.            Crystal scales of justice prize

13.            Observers

14.            Relations between CEPEJ and other Council of Europe bodies

15.            Other Items