EUROPEAN Commission

FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF justice (CEPEJ)

2011 Activity report

For further information: www.coe.int/CEPEJ     

1.            This report outlines the work undertaken by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ)[1] in 2011 in accordance with its Programme of Activities[2].  It was drafted by the Bureau, adopted by the CEPEJ at its 19th Plenary Meeting (5 and 6 July 2012) and submitted to the Committee of Ministers for approval, pursuant to Articles 7.6 and 7.7 of the CEPEJ Statute.  

1.         THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE (CEPEJ) in 2011

1.1          Membership of the CEPEJ

2.            The CEPEJ is made up of experts from the 47 member states of the Council of Europe. Only two states (Liechtenstein and San Marino) were not represented on the CEPEJ during the year. Two of the states enjoying observer status with the Council of Europe, Canada and Japan, participated in one of the plenary meetings.

3.            Mr John STACEY (United Kingdom) was President of the CEPEJ and Mr Georg STAWA (Austria) was Vice-President. The other members of the Bureau were Mr Irakli ADEISHVILI (Georgia) and Mr Audun BERG (Norway).

4.            The European Court of Human Rights, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE), the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors (CCPE), the European Committee on Legal Co-operation (CDCJ), the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) and the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) were also represented at plenary meetings.

5.            The European Union was regularly represented at the plenary and working group meetings, by the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the Secretariat of the European Parliament and the Fundamental Rights Agency.

6.            The European Association of Judges, MEDEL (Magistrats Européens pour la Démocratie et les Libertés), the European Federation of Administrative Judges, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the European Union of Rechtspfleger (EUR), the International Union of Judicial Officers (UIHJ), the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN), the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) and the American Bar Association – Rule of Law Initiative have observer status.

1.2       Meetings of the CEPEJ

7.            The CEPEJ held its 17th plenary meeting on 28-29 June and its 18h plenary meeting on 7‑8 December in Strasbourg.

8.            The Bureau of the CEPEJ met in Paris on 25 January and Strasbourg on 28 September.

9.            The Working Group for the Evaluation of Judicial Systems (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL) met in Strasbourg on 7-8 April and 20-21 October, with Mr Jean-Paul JEAN (France) in the chair. The steering group of the SATURN Centre for Judicial Time Management met in Strasbourg on 19-20 May and 21-23 September, with Mr Jacques BÜHLER (Switzerland) in the chair. The Working Group on the Quality of Justice (CEPEJ-GT-QUAL) met in Strasbourg on 16-17 February and 6-7 October, with Mr François PAYCHERE (Switzerland) in the chair.

10.          The 6th plenary meeting of the CEPEJ’s network of pilot courts was held in Strasbourg on 22 September and the 5th plenary meeting of the network of national correspondents took place in Strasbourg on 29 June.

2.         ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE CEPEJ IN 2011

11.          The CEPEJ’s activity programme is part of Pilar “Rule of law”, Sector “Justice”, Programme “Independence and efficiency of justice” of the Council of Europe’s activity programme.  The CEPEJ’s task is central to the Council of Europe’s activities in that it is expected to promote “common fundamental values: human rights, rule of law and democracy” by “strengthening democracy, good governance and the rule of law in member states”.[3]

12.          The CEPEJ has been entrusted by the Committee of Ministers with the task of proposing practical solutions, suitable for use by Council of Europe member states, with a view to:

§     promoting the effective implementation of existing Council of Europe instruments relating to the organisation of justice;

§     ensuring that public policies concerning the courts take account of the needs of users of the justice system and, in particular, the judiciary and law officers;

§     contributing to reduce congestion in the European Court of Human Rights by offering states effective solutions prior to application to the Court and preventing violations of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

13.          The activity programme was implemented according to the second medium term activity programme for the period 2010-2014.[4]

2.1       Tools for analysing the functioning of judicial systems and ensuring that public policies relating to the courts are geared to greater efficiency

2.1.1 Evaluating the functioning of European judicial systems

14.          The CEPEJ launched its 4th cycle for evaluating the day-to-day functioning of the judicial systems in all the member states. This 2010-2012 cycle is based on the revised Evaluation Scheme adopted by the CEPEJ at its 16th plenary meeting, as well as its subsequent Explanatory note. [5] The national correspondents in the member states were invited to provide the 2010 data though the electronic scheme by 31 December. 46 member states have participated in the exercise (only Liechtenstein was not able to take part). The national authorities entrusted with judicial data collection and the member states were invited in particular to take into account the CEPEJ's Guidelines on judicial statistics - GOJUST[6], while paying special attention to the answers regarding case flow management in courts. A scientific expert was appointed by the Secretariat to process and analyse judicial data and thus supporting the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL in drafting the evaluation report.

15.          The network of national correspondents met with the members of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL on 29 June to discuss the homogenous interpretation of the questions and ensure the coherence of the data collection process.

16.          On the basis of the CEPEJ evaluation process, co-operation has been established with the University of Franche Comté (France) on “judicial regulation of access to court”.

Implementation of the peer evaluation process

17.          In the context of the peer evaluation of judicial statistics systems, expert visits were organised in Turkey (10-11 May), the Netherlands (20-21 June) and Austria (13-14 October). The aim of the process is to assist states in their efforts to enhance the quality of their judicial statistics, improve their statistical systems and ensure that national statistics are consistent with the standards set out in the CEPEJ’s evaluation scheme. It provides the opportunity to exchange experiences between national judicial statistics systems, share best practices, identify common indicators and transfer knowledge. It also seeks to improve and help ensure the transparency and reliability of the CEPEJ’s evaluation process.

Co-operation with the European Union

18.          Certain European Union bodies – the Council of the EU, the European Commission and the European Parliament (which are regularly represented at the preparatory meetings of the CEPEJ) - were very interested in the report as a tool designed to strengthen mutual confidence between judicial systems. The need for co-operation between the CEPEJ and the European Union in this field is underlined in both the Stockholm Programme, which was adopted by the EU member states in December 2009 and fixes the EU’s priorities in the field of justice, freedoms and security, and in the corresponding action plan adopted under the Spanish Chairmanship.

19.          The CEPEJ was invited to Brussels on 2 February for an informal exchange of views on the evaluation process with the delegations of EU member states, the representatives of the Commission and the Council of the EU. Such a meeting between the representatives of a Council of Europe Committee and the delegations of EU member states in Brussels was the first meeting of its type in the context of co-operation between the two institutions.

20.          This resulted in December in a request by the European Commission to the CEPEJ for preparing a report on the impact of the functioning of judicial systems on the economic situation in the 27 EU member states.

2.1.2 Optimising and improving the foreseeability of the timeframes of judicial procedures: the SATURN Centre

21.          Resolution N° 1 of the 30th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers of Justice (Istanbul, 24‑26 November 2010) "on a modern, transparent and efficient justice" invites "the Committee of Ministers to build on the work of the SATURN centre within CEPEJ, further developing its capacity to acquire better knowledge of the time required for judicial proceedings in the member States, with a view to developing tools to enable the member States to better meet their obligations under Article 6 of the ECHR regarding the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time".

22.          The CEPEJ SATURN Centre for Judicial Time Management continued its work in setting up a European observatory of judicial timeframes and developing appropriate tools, with the expert assistance of the CEPEJ Network of pilot courts.

23.          In a qualitative approach, the CEPEJ court coaching programme for implementing SATURN tools on judicial time management has been proposed to volunteer courts and organised in 8 courts of 6 member states. This programme is based on the CEPEJ “Guide for implementing SATURN tools in courts”[7].

24.          A Strategic plan for the SATURN Centre was adopted around seven strategic goals for reaching a concrete knowledge of length of procedure in the member states: data collection, continuous improvement of data collected, analysis of data collected, adoption of standards relating to judicial timeframes, dissemination of the standards and information relating to judicial timeframes, active promotion of the use of judicial time management tools, support to the implementation of judicial time management tools.

25.          A “Study on Council of Europe member states appeal and supreme courts’ lengths of proceedings” was published within the framework of the “CEPEJ Studies” (N° 17).

2.1.3. Promoting the quality of justice

26.          At the initiative of the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL, a report on: "Contractualisation and judicial process in Europe", based on the findings of Mr Julien LHUILLIER (France), was adopted by CEPEJ (CEPEJ Study No. 16).

27.          On the basis of its "Handbook on conducting satisfaction surveys aimed at court users in Council of Europe member states "[8], the CEPEJ has launched with volunteer courts a court coaching programme designed mainly for heads of courts who wish to organise such surveys in their jurisdiction. The programme has already been implemented in 6 courts of 5 member states.

28.          Two essential files have been opened by the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL, aimed at drafting guidelines for the reforms of judicial maps and the definition of indicators for the quality of justice.

2.2 Developing exchanges with networks of professionals

29.          In accordance with Article 3.e of its Statute, the CEPEJ has set up networks of professionals working in the field of justice to support its work on the basis of information and comments from practitioners and to facilitate the appropriation of the measures it establishes by those at whom they are primarily aimed.

2.2.1 Network of Pilot Courts

30.          The Network of pilot courts seeks to ensure that the CEPEJ’s activities are firmly rooted in the reality of the day-to-day functioning of justice and to ensure their relevance vis-à-vis the expectations of the judicial professionals. The 6th plenary meeting was held in Strasbourg on 22 September.

31.          The meeting provided the opportunity to present CEPEJ activities aimed directly at courts:

-               the handbook on conducting satisfaction surveys;

-               definition of key indicators for the quality of justice;

-               the implementation of the court coaching programme on judicial time management.

2.2.2 Lisbon Network

32.          An informal meeting of the Bureau of the Lisbon Network took place in Strasbourg on 27 June. The CEPEJ agreed that such a Bureau would continue to function, composed of four members entrusted with the preparation and management of the Network’s activities between the plenary meetings of the Network, within the framework of the CEPEJ’s activity programme. It also invited the Lisbon Network to express concrete proposals allowing a proper use of the CEPEJ tools within the training of judges and prosecutors.

2.2.3 Network of national correspondents

33.          The 5th plenary meeting of national correspondents responsible for judicial statistics (Strasbourg, 29 June) enabled to discuss the implementation of 2010 – 2012 evaluation cycle (see paras. 14 and 15 above).

2.3 Supporting member states in their judicial reforms

34.          At the request of the authorities of Azerbaijan, a team of CEPEJ experts appointed by the Bureau co-operated with the relevant authorities in Baku to assess the process for selecting judges (18-20 September). CEPEJ approved the experts' report "on the process for the selection of judges in Azerbaijan".[9]

35.          At the request of the authorities of Malta, CEPEJ experts co-operated with the relevant authorities in Valetta on the implementation of previous CEPEJ recommendations on the functioning of the judicial system (21-22 November 2011).

2.4          Contributing specific expertise to the debate on the functioning of the justice system: providing the legal and judicial community with a forum for discussion and suggestions and bringing justice systems and their users closer

Within the Council of Europe

36.          The CEPEJ developed specific working relations with other committees of the Council of Europe, such as the advisory committees (CCJE, CCPE), standard-setting committees (CDPC, CDCJ, CDDH) and other bodies dealing with matters relating to justice (e.g. Venice Commission).

In co-operation with the European Union

37.          The European Day of Justice was celebrated on and around 25 October in 18 member states. The Main Event was organised by the French Ministry of Justice and the First instance court of Toulouse (France).

With specific member states and other international partners

38.          The CEPEJ has established sessions aimed to raise awareness and train justice professionals on CEPEJ's tools and collect experiences from justice professionals ("CEPEJ Road show").

39.          The CEPEJ was also represented by several of its members or its secretariat at 35 events, which took place in 17 states in Europe and in other parts of the world and addressed issues of direct relevance to the functioning of justice (see Appendix 1). Moreover, numerous European media refer regularly to the work of the CEPEJ.

40.          This proves the importance that the European and international judicial communities attach to the work of the CEPEJ.

Means of communication

41.          Two issues of the "CEPEJ Newsletter" were published, sent electronically to close to 2.000 recipients (registered free of charge on a mailing list), dealing with topics relating to the functioning of justice with articles written by senior judicial or political figures and experts, together with news of what the CEPEJ has been doing.

42.          The CEPEJ’s internet site has met with increasing success in 2011 with more than 131.000 different connections (almost 500.000 pages seen). The site is now a standard reference within the European judicial community.

APPENDIX 1 : CEPEJ representations in European events and beyond

Dates	Country, City	Event	Organiser
12/01/2011	USA, Washington	Videoconference learning session for experts of the World Bank	World Bank
20.01	France, Bordeaux	Training session on judicial time management	Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature française
27/29.01	Switzerland, Neuchâtel	Conference on quality of justice	Académie suisse de la Magistrature
03.02	European Union (Brussels)	Presentation of the CEPEJ's evaluation report to delegations of the EU members states and EC and EP representatives	EU Council
11.02	Hungary, Budapest	Meeting of the  European Network of Councils for the Judiciary	European Network of Councils for the Judiciary
28.02	Italy, Trieste	Conference on the execution of the decisions of the ECtHR	Venice Commission
8/10.03	Hungary, Budapest	European Judicial Training Conference	European Judicial Training Network
21.03	Switzerland, Bern	Judicial colloquy on the 2010 report on European judicial systems and tools for an efficient management of courts developped by the CEPEJ	Swiss authorities
23/24/03	Turkey, Ankara	Conference on Court Management in Supreme Courts and Possible Solutions to Workload	CoE cooperation programmes
28/29.03	Georgia, Tbilisi	Conference “Quality of Justice and its contemporary challenges”	USAID, GIZ, East West Management Institute
4/5.04	Georgia, Tbilisi	International conference on Independence, Impartiality, Efficiency,Transparency, Competence	GIZ
		- Modern challenges of the judicial reform in the South Caucasus
12/14.04	Greece, Athens	Launch conference: Europe & Central Asia justice peer-assisted learning (ECA JUST-PAL) Network	World Bank, European Public Law Organization
21.04	Switzerland, Lausanna	Swiss-Chinese Seminar	Swiss authorities
10/11.05	Turkey, Ankara	Peer evaluation visit on judicial statstics	CEPEJ
11.05	France, Strasbourg	Training Day on Justice	Ecole Nationale d'Administration française

Dates	Country, City	Event	Organiser
12/13.05	Austria, Vienna	Symposium on fundamental rights indicators: "Using indicators to measure fundamental rights in the EU: challenges and solutions"	EU Fundamental Rights Agency
	(FRA)
8/10.06	Lithuania, Vilnius	General Assembly meeting of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary	ENJC
6/7.06	Serbia, Belgrade	Seminar on European standards for the performance and evaluation of the judges' work and ethical standards	CoE cooperation programmes
10.06	France, Strasbourg	Training on the right to a good administration of justice	Ecole Nationale d'Administration française
17.06	Netherlands, Masstricht	Seminar on Organisation Development in Courts	Utrecht University
20/21.06	Netherlands, The Hague	Peer evaluation visit on judicial statstics	CEPEJ
01.07	Switzerland, Geneva	World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement and possibilities to optimise the procedure by using CEPEJ tools	WTO
	(WTO)
04.07	Montenegro, Podgorica	Roundtable on right to a fair trial with a special focus on the length of proceedings	OSCE
29.08	Brasilia, Brazil	Seminar "Justice in Numbers"	Supreme Federal Court of Brazil
14/18.09	Romania, Bucharest	General Assembly of the European Union of Rechtspfleger	EUR
18/21.09	Azerbaijan, Baku	Expert misison for evaluating the procedure for selecting judges	CEPEJ
23.09	Austria, Vienna	Austrian "Anwaltstag" (summit of AT-Bar)	Austrian Bar
13/14.10	Austria, Vienna	Peer evaluation visit on judicial statstics	CEPEJ
25.10	France, Toulouse	European Day of Justice	CEPEJ, European Commission
25/26.10	Turkey, Istanbul	International conference of judicial reforms	Turkish High Council for judges and prosecutors

Dates	Country, City	Event	Organiser
31.10/01.11	France, Bordeaux	5th International conference on the Training of the Judges	International Organisation of Judicial Training
12.11	France, Bayonne	Annual Congress of the Syndicat des Avocats de France	Syndicat des Avocats de France
21/22.11	Malta, Valetta	Follow up meeting for impementing the recommendations on the functioning of the judicial system	CEPEJ
24/25.11	Belgium, Brussels	Plenary conference of the Menu for Justice Academic Network on Judicial Studies	Université Libre de Bruxelles
8/9.12	Romania, Vrancea	Court coaching programme on court user statisfaction surveys	CEPEJ