Strasbourg, 20 May 2011
CEPEJ-SATURN (2011)8
EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICENCY OF JUSTICE
(CEPEJ)
Steering Group of the SATURN Centre for judicial time management
(CEPEJ-SATURN)
9th meeting
Strasbourg, 19-20 May 2011
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 of the Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) held its 9th meeting on 19 and 20 May 2011 at the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg. Mr. Jacques BÜHLER (Switzerland) was re-elected as Chairman of the Group for a year.
2. The agenda and list of participants are appended to this report (Appendix I and II respectively).
1. Information by the President, the Secretariat and expert members of the SATURN Centre
3. The Secretariat reported that the questionnaire for the next evaluation report on European judicial systems will soon be open to replies via an electronic scheme until the 31 December 2011. A meeting at the end of June 2011 with national correspondents is planned to further clarify any ambiguity regarding the process and expectations. The Secretariat also informed that a call for applications will be published on the CEPEJ website to contract with a scientific expert entrusted with data collection, processing and analysis for the 2012 draft report. It invited the members to disseminate the call for applications.
4. The Secretariat reminded the steering group of the file “seen in” available on the CEPEJ’s website which gives updated news on events mentionning the CEPEJ and its activities.
5. Mr Jacques BÜHLER indicated that he took part, together with Mr Jean-Paul JEAN (Chair of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL) in a training Day dedicated to judicial timeframes at the French Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature in Bordeaux (20 January 2011).
6. Mr. Giacomo OBERTO reported on the project aimed at measuring court users’ satisfaction thanks to surveys, conducted in the court of Torino. More than 600 replies to the questionnaire are being analysed. The results will soon be officially presented.
7. Mr. John STACEY, President of CEPEJ, reported that major cuts, namely £2 billion in 4 years, in the budget for justice (i.e. prison system, judicial system) were decided in the United Kingdom. A reorganisation of the system’s structure and staff cuts are planned. Court managers will become “cluster managers” (i.e. they will be responsible for a group of courts).
8. Mr. Francesco DEPASQUALE reported an increase in the number of staff in the judiciary in Malta.
9. Mrs. Jana WURSTOVA informed that a new Civil Code was adopted in the Czech Republic. A new member for the pilot court network was appointed.
2. Qualitative approach to the management of timeframes: implementation of the court coaching programme for a proper use of the SATURN tools
10. Mr. Jon T. JOHNSEN presented the summary report on the implementation of SATURN time management tools, namely invoking the framework of the program, the methodology used and the results of particular pilot experiences (Czech Republic, England, Georgia, Italy, Norway and Switzerland).
11. Mr. Giacomo OBERTO (Italy) reported on the special measures adopted in the Torino court (“Strasbourg Programme”) including measures close to the SATURN Guidelines.
12. Mr. Jon T. JOHNSEN stated that the study allows to test the quality and usability of the SATURN guidelines. Following such findings, the SATURN Centre should be able to make recommendations on time management to the member tates but also improve the SATURN guidelines. Members agreed that examples on best practices should be included within the Guidelines. They also recommended to consult the CCPE to know whether key deadlines could be indentified in a criminal procedure.
13. The experts agreed that the Guidelines should be updated and discussed ways to support their implementation in member states’ judicial systems which still seem to lack enthusiasm or to be unwilling to participate in such process. Mrs Jana WURTOVA advised the members to focus efforts on encouraging court presidents and ministries of justice to participate in such study. Mr. Giacomo OBERTO believed that in order for ministries to be more pro active in the study of time management, they should be convinced to have more uniform data collection systems on timeframes and allow for more comparable data to be collected. The efforts should concentrate on updating the legislation via the work of the ministries of Justice. Integrating the SATURN tools or similar tools within national legislations would give them more usefulness because they would be legally binding. Mr. Francesco DEPASQUALE invited the members to discuss the idea of a conference where stakeholders would meet and discuss the way forward, perhaps work towards a legal instrument.
14. Members of the SATURN Centre discussed further ways of implementing Jon JOHSEN’s report. The Secretariat reminded the members that CEPEJ was allocated a budget allowing for experts to coach (with interpretation where appropriate) some volunteer courts on the implementation of the protocol. The experts agreed that coaching is essential in implementing the guidelines and decided to call for the participation of courts during the next CEPEJ plenary meeting.
15. John STACEY, Jon JOHNSEN, Jacques BÜHLER and Jana WURSTOWA agreed to participate in coaching sessions in courts. The Secretariat was entrusted to launch calls for application among courts in the member states through various ways (web site, Newsletter, calls at the CEPEJ's plenary meeting, at the plenary meeting of the pilot courts, …).
16. The members of the group agreed that it is important to raise awareness on the works of the SATURN Centre and that all member states should have access to the documents in a language they understand. They agreed to remind CEPEJ's members of the importance of their responsibility in translating the documents.
17. The members decided to publish the document “Implementation of SATURN time management tools - synthesizing report from seven test projects” (CEPEJ-SATURN(2011)2) with the national reports and the SATURN methodology (CEPEJ-SATURN(2010)1), following the agreed changes.
18. The Steering Group entrusted the Secretariat to prepare a handbook on methodology based on the report, for the next meeting of the Group.
19. The Group entrusted Jacques BÜHLER to draft an explanatory note to the SATURN Guidelines, including best practices, for instance extracts of the “Decalogue of the Strasbourg programme” of the Court of Torino.
2. Quantitative approach
Study on Council of Europe member states appeal and supreme courts’ lengths of proceedings
20. Mr Marco VELICOGNA, scientific expert (Italy) presented his “Study on Council of Europe member states appeal and supreme courts’ lengths of proceedings “. The study is based in particular on measuring and analyzing tools such as the clearance rate and disposition time from the national answers to the CEPEJ's evaluation scheme. The group commended Mr. Marco VELICOGNA for the very useful report.
21. The Group discussed changes to be made to Mr. Marco VELICOGNA’s report before 6 June 2011. They agreed that the findings need more description. An introductory part should give more explanations on the tools used in the report. Examples should be given for better understanding of the results. The Group decided to present the report at the CEPEJ plenary meeting in June for possible comments by the delegations, which would be further examined at the next Steering Group meeting.
How to use data available at the European Court of Human Rights?
22. Ms. Paola TONARELLI-LACORE (Registry of the European Court of Human Rights) gave a presentation on statistics available on cases related to the length of proceedings. According to her, the ECHR does not have sufficient means to invest in a proper statistical data collection system. She also indicated that the statistics do not always reflect the reality because parties prefer to bring a case on the basis of another article than article 6 (which takes at least 5 years to be resolved). She also mentioned that because of the prioritization policy, it would not be adequate to apply clearance rate and disposition time calculations to the ECHR proceedings. She advised members of the group to encourage member states to further work on the national remedies.
23. The Group agreed to return to this issue at a later stage.
Definition of timeframe standards based on the Time Management Checklist
24. Mr. Marco FABRI, scientific expert (Italy), presented a discussion paper on the issues of comparability of data (across time, across countries) and timeframes. He reminded the Group of the need to have a common data dictionary. A comparative study on judicial systems’ organizational charts gives an idea of the existing court structures and would be very useful for this study. Missing information could be requested during the plenary meeting.
25. The Group decided to focus the study on specific disputes/situations which are applicable to all countries. Mr. Marco FABRI proposed to find types of cases that can be easily comparable among the countries.
26. The Group agreed to encourage the Working Group on Evaluation of judicial systems to define precisely, with the pilot courts, the different types of cases in order to make comparisons. It also requested the GT-EVAL’s assistance on giving examples of incoming, pending and outgoing cases.
27. The Group entrusted the Secretariat to invite the pilot courts to propose concrete standard situations. Mr. Giacomo OBERTO was entrusted to propose 2 or 3 situations in civil matters and Mr. Jacques BÜHLER in administrative law.
3. Strategy of the SATURN Centre for implementing an European observatory on the timeframes
28. Mr. Jacques BÜHLER invited the members to comment through email, before the end of July, on the draft "Strategy of the SATURN Centre" that he had prepared, which would be adopted at the next Steering group meeting in September. The experts agreed that the practice of the ECHR on timeframe issues should always be part of the SATURN Strategy.
Appendix I
AGENDA
1.Opening of the meeting
2.Appointment of the President of the Group
3.Information by the President and members of the Group and the Secretariat
Qualitative approach of the management of the timeframes: implementation of the court coaching programme for the proper use of the SATURN tools
Rapporteur: Jon T. JOHNSEN
a. Presentation and discussion of the report on pilot experiences;
b. Is there a need to review the SATURN Guidelines?
4.Quantitative approach
a. Study on Council of Europe Member States Appeal and Supreme Courts’ Lengths of Proceedings
Rapporteur: Marco VELICOGNA
b. How to use data available at the European Court of Human Rights?
Rapporteur: Paola TONARELLI-LACORE
c. Definition of timeframe standards based on the Time Management Checklist;
Rapporteur: Marco FABRI
ii. Description of operation of judicial systems
iii. In-depth analysis of the existing sources and comparability of the different data available
4. Strategy of the SATURN Centre for implementing an European observatory on the timeframes
Rapporteur: Jacques BÜHLER
5.Follow up to the work
Appendix II
List of Participants / Liste des participants
Irakli ADEISHVILI, Chairman, Chamber of Civil Cases, Tbilisi City Court, TBILISI, GEORGIA, Apologised / Excusé
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
Jon T. JOHNSEN, Professor in Law, OSLO, Norway
Giacomo OBERTO, Magistrat, Tribunal de Grande Instance, TURIN, ITALIE
John STACEY, Deputy Head of Civil Law and Justice Division, Access to Justice Directorate, Ministry of Justice, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, (Chair of the CEPEJ/Président de la CEPEJ)
Jana WURSTOVA, Lawyer, Adviser, Czech Bar Association, PRAGUE, Czech republic
***
Scientific ExpertS / ExpertS scientifiqueS
Marco FABRI, Research Institute on Judicial Systems, National Research Council, BOLOGNA, ITALY
Marco VELICOGNA, 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, Directeur Délégué à L'Administration Régionale Judiciaire, Cour d'appel de LYON, LYON, FRANCE
OTHER EXPERT / AUTRE EXPERT
Alessandro BOLLETTINARI, University of Turin, ITALY
COUNCIL OF EUROPE / CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE
EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS (ECHR)/COUR EUROPÉENNE DES DROITS DE L’HOMME (CEDH)
Paola TONARELLI-LACORE,Registry of the European Court of Human Rights/Greffe de la Cour européenne des droits de l’Homme, STRASBOURG, FRANCE
SECRETARIAT
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
Fax: +33 3 88 41 37 43 - E-mail: [email protected]
Stéphane LEYENBERGER, Secretary of the CEPEJ / Secrétaire de la CEPEJ
Muriel DECOT, Co-Secretary of the CEPEJ / Co-secrétaire de la CEPEJ
Jean-Pierre GEILLER, Documentation
Annette SATTEL, Communication
Kelly SIPP, Administrative assistant / Assistante administrative
Elisabeth HEURTEBISE, Assistant / Assistante
Interpreters / Interprètes
Amanda BEDDOWS
Chloé CHENETIER
Barbara GRUT