Strasbourg, 14 April 2009

CEPEJ-SATURN(2009)2

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICENCY OF JUSTICE

(CEPEJ)

Steering Group of the SATURN Centre for judicial time management

(CEPEJ-SATURN)

5th meeting

Strasbourg, 26-27 March 2009

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 fifth meeting in Strasbourg on 26 and 27 March 2009, with Mr Jacques BÜHLER (Switzerland), who was unanimously re-elected, in the chair.

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

1.   Information by the Secretariat

3.     The Secretariat reported on the visit by CEPEJ experts to Portugal (Lisbon, 25-27 February) for the purpose of assessing the Justice Ministry’s policy for improving management of the flow of cases in the courts.  A report would be submitted to the CEPEJ plenary meeting in June.

2.   Implementation of the guidelines for judicial time management

4.     The Steering Group agreed that it was necessary to begin by trying out the use of the guidelines and appended tables (CEPEJ(2008)8) in the pilot courts and obtaining convincing results there before extending use to a large number of courts.  During the trial phase, it would have to be made clear to the pilot courts that the aim was not to check how well they operated but to test the relevance of the CEPEJ’s statistical tools.

5.     It was therefore agreed that the pilot courts would be sent a straightforward questionnaire to determine the difficulties encountered in completing the questionnaire appended to the guidelines.  The pilot courts would have until the end of May to reply (see Appendix III).

6.     The expert, Marco FABRI, would analyse the replies and prepare a summary document for the 4th plenary meeting of the Network of Pilot Courts (Strasbourg, 25 September 2009), at which discussion of the subject would be the main item on the agenda.  The tables appended to the guidelines could be adapted depending on the feedback from the pilot courts.

7.     The Steering Group also agreed to send the guidelines to the CEPEJ national statistics correspondents (with copies to CEPEJ members) and draw their attention to the need to organise national statistics systems in such a way that data on timeframes in the four types of cases designated by the CEPEJ (litigious divorce, employment dismissal, robbery and intentional homicide) could be communicated in future (see Appendix IV).

3.   European observatory of judicial timeframes

8.     The SATURN Centre was due to evolve into a permanent European observatory of judicial timeframes.  Accordingly, the experts underlined the synergies which would have to be developed with the general process of evaluating judicial systems, building on what already existed in the various countries without necessarily imposing a single system.

9.     It was suggested that the aim should be to present an assessment in the form of coloured maps setting out groups of countries based on how quickly the four types of cases designated by the CEPEJ were dealt with and a map indicating the level of case backlogs in courts.

10.  The observatory or monitoring centre should not just provide information about timeframes but should offer member states value added in the form of recommendations on the management of judicial time.

11.  Jacques Bühler proposed preparing a draft questionnaire based on a simplified version of the time management checklist for the end of September 2009.  The questionnaire would have to be sent to several institutions in each member state in electronic form so as to facilitate the collection and processing of the data requested.

4.   Follow-up

12.  Depending on the conclusions of the 4th plenary meeting of the pilot courts and in order to establish a clear picture of judicial timeframes, the guidelines (if necessary, with corrections) and the questionnaire based on the checklist (see para 11 above) would be sent to the national correspondents and to a representative sample of courts (to be drawn up in each member state), allowing for an interplay of the views of central government authorities and courts.


aNNExE I                          

AGENDA / ORDRE DU JOUR

1.         Adoption of the agenda / Adoption de l’ordre du jour

2.         Information by the President of the Group and the Secretariat /

            Information du Président du Groupe et du Secrétariat

3.         Implementation of the Guidelines for judicial time management /

Mise en œuvre des Lignes directrices pour la maîtrise du temps judiciaires

§  Experimentation of the tables with the pilot courts /

Expérimentation des tableaux avec les Tribunaux-référents

§  Dissemination of the Guidelines in the member states /

Diffusion des Lignes directrcies dans les Etats membres

4.         Towards a European Observatory of of judicial timeframes /

Vers un Observatoire européen des délais des procédures judiciaires

§  Simplification of the existing questionnaire /

Simplification du questionnaire actuel

§  How to extend the questionnaire to a relevant sample of courts in each member states? /

Comment étendre le questionnaire à un échantillon représentatif de juridictions dans chaque Etat membre?

5.         Follow up to the on-going work / Suivi des travaux

6.         Other business / Questions diverses


ANNEXE II                               

List of participants / Liste des participants

Irakli ADEISHVILI, Chair of Civil Chamber of Tbilisi District Court, Tbilisi, Georgia

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

Gaby EMAN, Advisor, Directorate General for the Administration of Justice and Law Enforcement, Instruments Department, Ministry of Justice, THE HAGUEn, THE NETHERLANDS

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

Apologised / excusé

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

Apologised / excusé

John STACEY, Head of Civil and Family Procedures Branch, HM Court Service, Civil Law and Justice Division, 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, ZAGREB, CROATIA

Jana WURSTOVA, Lawyer, Adviser, Czech Bar Association, PRAGUE 1, Czech republic

Scientific Expert / Expert scientifique

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

OBSERVERS / OBSERVATEURS

EUROPEAN UNION OF RECHTSPFLEGER AND COURT CLERKS/UNION EUROPEENNE DES GREFFIERS DE JUSTICE (EUR)

Michel CRAMET, Coordonnateur, Service aministratif régional de la Cour d’Appel de Lyon, LYON, FRANCE

SECRETARIAT

Directorate Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs – Justice Division

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

Division de la Justice

Fax: +33 3 88 41 37 43 - E-mail: [email protected]

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

Jean-Pierre GEILLER, Documentation, Tel : +33 3 88 41 22 27, e-mail : [email protected]

Sandrine MAROLLEAU, Communication, Tél: +33 3 90 21 52 08, e-mail: [email protected]

Elisabeth HEURTEBISE, Assistante, Tel : +33 3 88 41 35 54, Fax : +33 3 88 41 37 45, e-mail: [email protected]

Interpreters / Interprètes

Amanda BEDDOWS

Chloé CHENETIER

Corinne MCGEORGE


Annexe III – Texte adressé par le Président du Groupe de Pilotage du Centre SATURN aux tribunaux-référents en y joignant les Lignes directrices pour la gestion du temps judiciaire (EUGMONT) et le questionnaire ci-dessous

Dear Madam, Dear Sir,

Last year the Steering Group of the SATURN Centre sent you a questionnaire. Its goals were to show which data on judicial timeframes are available and which methods of calculation have been used in your courts. During the 3rd Plenary meeting of the Pilot courts (Catania, 24 October 2008) we presented a synthesis of the results which is available on the CEPEJ website (www.coe.int/cepej / area: judicial time management / Working documents).

On the basis of your replies, the Steering Group of the SATURN Centre drafted Guidelines for judicial time management which were adopted by the CEPEJ in December last year. A copy is appended to this letter.

The terms of reference of the Steering Group foresee to set up an European Observatory on judicial timeframes. To this end it will be necessary to receive from each member state of the Council of Europe, the statistics detailed in the Appendix to these Guidelines. Before extending data collection on  judicial timeframes to all the European judicial systems, the SATURN Steering Group wishes to make it sure that the Guidelines are understandable and that it will be possible to get from these Guidelines the statistics which are defined.

Therefore we are pleased to forward to you a brief questionnaire appended and kindly request you to complete and send it back to the Secretariat of the CEPEJ (e-mail: [email protected]), no-later than 31 May 2009.

The replies collected will be used as a discussion basis at the 4th Plenary meeting of the Pilot courts (Strasbourg, 10 September 2009) and, subject to the comments, the Guidelines for judicial time management as well as the Appendix will be modified. We kindly urge you to keep in mind the date of the meeting - an invitation will be sent to you at a later stage.

Thank you in advance for your contribution. The Secretariat of the CEPEJ and the Chair of the Steering group of the SATURN Centre ([email protected]) remain at your disposal for any information or help to complete the  tables on statistics.

Looking forward to seeing you In Strasbourg in September.

Yours faithfully

On behalf of the SATURN Centre of the CEPEJ

Jacques Bühler

Chair of the Steering Group

***

Madame, Monsieur,

L'année dernière le Groupe de pilotage du Centre SATURN vous a adressé un questionnaire. Ses buts étaient de voir quelles données étaient disponibles dans vos tribunaux en matière de délais judiciaires et quelles étaient les méthodes de calcul employées. Lors de la 3ème réunion plénière des tribunaux référents (Catane, 24 octobre 2008), nous vous avons présenté une synthèse des résultats qui est également disponible en ligne sur le site de la CEPEJ (www.coe.int/cepej  / rubrique: "gestion du temps judiciaire" / documents de travail).

Sur la base de vos réponses, le Groupe de pilotage du Centre SATURN a rédigé des "Lignes directrices pour la gestion du temps judiciaire" qui ont été adoptées par la CEPEJ en décembre de l'année dernière. Nous vous en remettons un exemplaire en annexe.

Le mandat du Groupe de pilotage du centre SATURN prévoit la mise en place d'un observatoire européen des délais judiciaires. Pour y arriver, il sera nécessaire d'obtenir de chaque pays membre du Conseil de l'Europe les statistiques prévues dans l'annexe aux Lignes directrices précitées. Avant de généraliser la collecte de données statistiques relatives aux délais judiciaires à l'ensemble des systèmes judiciaires européens, le groupe de pilotage du Centre SATURN veut s'assurer que ses lignes directrices sont compréhensibles et qu'il est possible d'obtenir les statistiques qui y sont définies.

A cet effet, nous vous adressons le bref questionnaire ci-joint et vous prions de le compléter et retourner au Secrétariat de la CEPEJ jusqu'au 31 mai 2009 (courriel: [email protected]).

Les réponses collectées serviront de base de discussion pour la 4ème réunion plénière des tribunaux référents (Strasbourg, 10 septembre 2009) et, en fonction des remarques, les Lignes directrices pour la gestion du temps judiciaire et son annexe seront modifiées. Nous vous prions de réserver la date de cette réunion; une invitation vous parviendra ultérieurement.

D'avance, nous vous remercions de votre collaboration en nous retournant le questionnaire ci-joint. Le Secrétariat de la CEPEJ et le Président du Groupe de pilotage du Centre SATURN ([email protected]) se tiennent à votre entière disposition pour tout renseignement complémentaire ou pour vous aider à compléter le questionnaire.

Dans l'attente du plaisir de vous rencontrer en septembre à Strasbourg, nous vous prions d'agréer, Madame, Monsieur, nos salutations distinguées.

Pour le Centre SATURN de la CEPEJ

Jacques Bühler

Président du Groupe de pilotage

Questionnaire 2009 of the SATURN Centre concerning the evaluation of the CEPEJ guidelines for judicial time management

To return for 31 May 2009 to [email protected]

A. Questions concerning the guidelines for judicial time management

Questions

Answers

I. General principles and guidelines

1

Is this chapter understandable?

Yes  /  No

2

Possible remarks

II. Guidelines for legislators and policy makers

3

Is this chapter understandable?

Yes  /  No

4

Possible remarks:

III. . Guidelines for authorities responsible for administration of justice

5

Is this chapter understandable?

Yes  /  No

6

Possible remarks:

IV. . Guidelines for court managers

7

Is this chapter understandable?

Yes  /  No

8

Possible remarks:

V. . Guidelines for judges

9

Is this chapter understandable?

Yes  /  No

10

Possible remarks:

B. Questions oncerning Appendix I: European uniform Guidelines  for monitoring of judicial timeframes (EUGMONT)

Questions

Answers

1. Genaral data concerning on courts and courts proceedings

11

Is it possible for your court to provide the statistic described under this number?

Yes  /  No

12

Possible remarks:

2. Information on types of cases

13

Is it possible for your court to provide the statistic described under this number?

Yes  /  No

14

Possible remarks:

3. Information on timeframes of proceedings

15

Is it possible for your court to provide the statistic described under this number?

Yes  /  No

16

Possible remarks:

4. Monitoring of intermediate stages of proceedings

17

Is it possible for your court to provide the statistic described under this number?

Yes  /  No

18

Possible remarks:

5. Analytical information and indicators

19

Is it possible for your court to provide indicator no 1: Clearance rate (CR indicator)?

Yes  /  No

20

Is it possible for your court to provide indicator no 2: Case Turnover ratio?

Yes  /  No

21

Is it possible for your court to provide indicator no 3: Disposition time (DT indicator)?

Yes  /  No

22

Is it possible for your court to provide indicator no 4: Efficiency rate (ER indicator)?

Yes  /  No

23

Possible remarks:

The SATURN Centre is thanking you in advance for your replies. You can also provide for information, but it is optional, statistics mentioned in this questionnaire which you can produce easely (number for 2008 or 2007 depending on what is available in your court).


Annexe IV – Texte adressé par le Secrétariat aux correspondants nationaux de la CEPEJ (avec copie aux membres de la CEPEJ) en y joignant les Lignes directrices pour la gestion du temps judiciaire (EUGMONT) et les Lignes directrices sur les statistiques judiciaires (GOJUST)

To the CEPEJ's national correspondents

Madam, Sir,

The European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) collects every two years statistical data in member states of the Council of Europe and then publishes the data in its report on the European judicial systems.

The CEPEJhas identified four types of cases that exist in the majority of European countries and on which it would like to focus in particular. These are cases of litigious divorces, dismissals, robberies and intentional homicides (for detailed definitions: see the appended document CEPEJ(2008)11 page 8).

In order to improve the quality of the statistical data collection, including those relating to the length of proceedings, we would appreciate it if you could include the four above mentioned types of cases into the typology used for judicial statistics in your country. Should this request not be within your jurisdiction, we would be grateful if you could forward this request to the competent bodies.

For information, we are pleased to send herewith the CEPEJ "Guidelines for judicial statistics" and "Guidelines for judicial time management".

We thank you in advance for your cooperation and remain at your disposal for any further information.

Yours sincerely,

The Secretariat of the CEPEJ

***

Aux correspondants nationaux de la CEPEJ

Madame, Monsieur,

La Commission européenne pour l’efficacité de la justice (CEPEJ) collecte tous les deux ans des données statistiques au sein des Etats membres du Conseil de l’Europe. Elle les publie ensuite dans son rapport sur les systèmes judiciaires européens.

La CEPEJ a identifié quatre types d’affaires qui existent dans la majorité des pays européens et sur lesquels elle désire mettre l'accent. Il s’agit des affaires de divorces contentieux, de licenciements, de vols avec violence et d’homicides volontaires (définitions détaillées : voir document ci-joint CEPEJ(2008)11 page 9).

Afin d’améliorer la qualité de la collecte des données statistiques, notamment celles relatives à la durée des procédures, nous vous serions reconnaissants d’intégrer les quatre types d’affaires précités dans la typologie utilisée pour les statistiques judiciaires dans votre pays. Si cette demande ne relevait pas de votre compétence, nous vous saurions gré de transmettre cette demande aux organes compétents.

Pour information, nous vous adressons, en annexe, les lignes directrices de la CEPEJ en matière de statistiques et celles en matière de gestion du temps judiciaire.

D’avance, nous vous remercions de votre collaboration et restons à votre entière disposition pour tout renseignement complémentaire.

Nous vous prions de recevoir, Madame, Monsieur, nos meilleures salutations.

Le Secrétariat de la CEPEJ