Strasbourg, 15 July 2010

CEPEJ-SATURN(2010)6

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICENCY OF JUSTICE

(CEPEJ)

Steering Group of the SATURN Centre for judicial time management

(CEPEJ-SATURN)

7th meeting

Geneva, 12 and 14 April 2010

MEETING REPORT

Report prepared by the Secretariat

Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs


1.     The Steering Group of the SATURN Centre for the study and analysis of judicial time management held its 7th meeting in Geneva on 12 and 14 April 2010, at the invitation of the Federal Tribunal of Switzerland, Strasbourg.

2.     The members of the Steering Group took part in the 5th plenary meeting of the Network of Pilot courts on 13 April (see CEPEJ(2010)7).

 

3.     The Group unanimously re-elected Mr Jacques BÜHLER (Switzerland) as Chair of the Group.

4.     The agenda and the list of participants appear respectively in Appendices I and II to this report.

1.   Information by the Secretariat and the experts

5.     The Secretariat informed the Group on the preparation of the CEPEJ's evaluation report on European judicial systems.

6.     Mr John JOHNSON informed the group on the CEPEJ's expert mission which took place in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) on 23 – 26 February 2010 to study the performance of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department and make concrete recommendations for improving the existing system. A report was drafted by the experts and submitted to the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department.

2.   Quantitative indicators of case flow management

 

7.     The scientific expert, Mr Marco FABRI, introduced his analysis of the Pilot courts' answers regarding the relevance of the EUGMONT statistics to be collected from the courts. He noted that some pilot courts had extended the survey to the whole country, which was a good example of the influence that pilot courts may have on member states. However he stressed the heterogeneous answers given by the pilot courts. For instance, he indicated that all the courts did not consider the same "ending point" for calculating lengths of proceedings. There was also various understanding of what a "final judgement" was. 

 

8.     It resulted from the discussion that it was difficult for the CEPEJ to rely only on pilot courts to have a clear picture of the situation of judicial timeframes in the member states. The discussion among the experts led to the conclusion that it was premature to set up a country by country representative sample of courts which could be usefully consulted to get concrete data on judicial timeframes.

9.     A further strategy would need to be defined to go forward towards the establishment of a European observatory of judicial timeframes. This strategy would have to:

§  rely on concrete elements, following a step by step approach,

§  take into account the existing information resulting from the CEPEJ's cycle evaluating European judicial systems,

§  collect some information from central bodies in the member states rather than from pilot courts which were not representative enough to provide part of the necessary information,

3.   Qualitative indicators of case flow management

10.  Mr Marco FABRI presented its analysis on qualitative indicators to be applied to the courts for improving case flow management. This analysis should take into account the CEPEJ's Time Management Checklist.

11.  The experts agreed to send the questionnaire prepared by Mr Marco FABRI to the member states and the pilot courts (see below).

  1. Protocol with pilot courts to test the implementation of a selection of SATURN tools

12.  Mr Jon JOHNSEN presented the concept that he had set up for testing concretely the implementation of CEPEJ's tools and measures with courts, as well as the results from the pilot experience that he had carried out with the Norwegian court of Nedre Romerike, so as to further develop a methodology which could be applied to all courts.

13.  The experts welcomed the initiative of Mr JOHNSEN and decided to further work on this basis so as to set up a protocol to be applied to volunteer courts, and possibly set up a comprehensive CEPEJ's programme enabling to visit European courts in the member states to coach them on the use and implementation of the CEPEJ's tools.

14.  As a test, the experts agreed to use the methodology proposed by Mr JOHNSEN (CEPEJ-SATURN(2010)1) in a court of their own countries before the next meeting of the Group.

  1. Follow up

15.  Taking into account the valuable preparatory work by Mr Marco FABRI and Mr Jon JOHNSEN, as well as the discussions with the Network of Pilot courts, the Steering group decided to re-shuffle a comprehensive working plan to be progressively implemented by the Group. This plan would consider both a quantitative and a qualitative approach.

16.  This plan appears in Appendix III to this report.

  1. Other business

17.  Mr Alan UZELAC, who was participating in his last meeting of the Steering Group as an expert, thanked the experts and the CEPEJ for the work carried out together during several years. The experts commended on his commitments towards the achievements of the CEPEJ's objectives and his active participation in the drafting of several CEPEJ's main tools as regards in particular lengths of proceedings.

 


aPPENDIx I                            

AGENDA / ORDRE DU JOUR

1.         Opening of the meeting and its objectives /

Ouverture de la séance et objectifs de la séance

2.         Appointment of the President of the Group /

Désignation du Président du Groupe

3.         Informations by the President of the Group and the Secretariat /

            Information du Président du Groupe et du Secrétariat

4.         EUGMONT data collected from the Pilot courts /

Statistiques EUGMONT collectées auprès des tribunaux-référents

§  Analyse of the Pilot courts’ answers by Marco FABRI, scientific expert / Analyse des réponses des tribunaux-référents par Marco FABRI, expert scientifique

§  Discussion about the analyse and follow up to the work / Discussion de l’analyse et suivi des travaux

5.         Qualitative indicators on case flow management /

Indicateurs qualitatifs relatifs à la gestion des flux d’affaires

§  Presentation by Marco FABRI, scientific expert / Présentation par Marco FABRI

§  Discussion and follow up to the work / Discussion et suivi des travaux

6.         Representative sample of courts /

Echantillon représentatif de tribunaux

§  Presentation of the proposal / Présentation de la proposition

§  Discussion and follow up to the work / Discussion et suivi des travaux

7.             Protocol with a Pilot court to test the implementation of a selection of SATURN tools / Protocole avec un tribunal-référent pour tester la mise en œuvre d’une sélection d’outils SATURN

§  Presentation of the concept and information about the meeting with Nedre Romerike tingrett (Norway) by Jon T. Johnsen / Présentation du concept et informations sur la rencontre avec Nedre Romerike tingrett (Norvège) par Jon T. Johnsen

§  Discussion and follow up to the work / Discussion et suivi des travaux

8.             Preparation of the discussion with the Pilot courts /

            Préparation de la discussion avec les tribunaux-référents

9.         Other business / Questions diverses


APPENDIX II                           

List of participants / Liste des participants

Irakli ADEISHVILI, Chairman, Chamber of Civil Cases, TBILISI, GEORGIA

Jacques BÜHLER, Secrétaire Général suppléant, Tribunal fédéral suisse, LAUSANNE, SUISSE (Chair of the Group / Président du Groupe)

Francesco DEPASQUALE, Ministry representative, Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, VALLETTA, MALTA

Fausto de SANTIS, Directeur Général au sein du Bureau de l’organisation judiciaire, Ministère de la Justice, ROME, ITALIE (Chair of the CEPEJ / Président de la CEPEJ)

Jon T. JOHNSEN, Professor in Law, Faculty of law, University of Oslo, NORWAY 

Giacomo OBERTO, Magistrat, Tribunal de Grande Instance, TURIN, ITALIE

Jana WURSTOVA, Lawyer, Adviser, Czech Bar Association, PRAGUE, Czech republic

 

***

John STACEY, Deputy Head of Civil Law and Justice Division, Access to Justice Directorate, Ministry of Justice, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (Vice-Chair of the CEPEJ / Vice-Président de la CEPEJ)

Alan UZELAC, Ph.D. Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, CROATIA

 

***

Scientific Expert / Expert scientifique

Marco FABRI, Research Institute on Judicial Systems, National Research Council, BOLOGNA, ITALY

***

SECRETARIAT

Directorate Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs (DG-HL) -

Justice Division /

Direction générale des droits de l’Homme et affaires juridiques (DG-HL) -

Division de la Justice

Stéphane LEYENBERGER, Secretary of the CEPEJ / Secrétaire de la CEPEJ, Tel : +33 3 88 41 34 12, e-mail: [email protected]

Muriel DECOT, Co-Secretary of the CEPEJ / Co-secrétaire de la CEPEJ, Tél: +33 3 90 21 44 55, e-mail : [email protected]

Barbara SCHERER, Special Advisor to the Secretariat of the CEPEJ/ Conseiller spécial auprès du Secrétariat de la CEPEJ, : +33 3 90 21 53 57, e-mail : [email protected]

Elisabeth HEURTEBISE, Assistant/Assistante, Tel : +33 3 88 41 35 54, Fax : +33 3 88 41 37 43 e-mail: [email protected]

Interpreters / Interprètes

Lucie DE BURLET

Starr PIROT


APPENDIX III

SATURN Working Plan 2010 – 2012