Strasbourg, 15 October 2007

CEPEJ-GT-QUAL(2007)14

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE

(CEPEJ)

WORKING GROUP ON QUALITY OF JUSTICE

(CEPEJ-GT-QUAL)

2^nd meeting, 20 – 21 September 2007

MEETING REPORT

1.    The Working Group on Quality of Justice (CEPEJ-GT-QUAL) of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) held its 2^nd meeting at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on 20 and 21 September 2007, with Mr Daimar LIIV (Estonia) at the Chair.  

2.    The Chair welcomed Mr Kari TURTIAINEN (Finland) who was appointed in the Group by the Bureau as Deputy. The Secretariat forwarded the excuses of Mr Johannes RIEDEL (Germany) and Mr Mikhail VINOGRADOV (Federation of Russia) who could not attend the meeting. The Group was also informed that Mr Jan-Kees VOS (Netherlands) had been appointed to other national functions and would not be able to participate in the Group anymore.

3.    The agenda appears in Appendix I and the list of participants in Appendix II to this report.  

      1.   Information from the Secretariat  

4.    The Secretariat informed the Working group of the recent restructuring operation within the Council of Europe Secretariat, which had led to the merger of the Directorate General of Legal Affairs and the Directorate General of Human Rights in a new Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs (DG-HL), headed by Mr Philippe BOILLAT. The secretariat of the CEPEJ remained within the Justice Division, which was part of the Directorate of Co-operation (headed by Mr Roberto LAMPONI).

5.    The Group was also informed that the electronic version of the Scheme for evaluating European judicial systems had been finalised and opened for being used by the national correspondents within the framework of the 2006 – 2008 evaluation cycle.

2.   2007 – 2008 working plan of the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL

6.    The Secretariat informed the Group that the CCJE might decide to work especially on the quality of judicial decisions within its 2008 activity programme. There would be a great complementarity between this initiative and the current work of the GT-QUAL, and a proper articulation between both works should be ensured.

7.    It was stressed that a proper articulation between the GT-QUAL's work and the work of the GT-EVAL and SATURN Centre should be ensured as well.

8.    The Group decided to pursue its work on three main axes:

§  from an inventory of the existing judicial quality systems, a report could be drafted including a structured synthesis of the tools implemented, the orientations chosen and the main results, if possible in highlighting the three levels: national, court and individual judges; a scientific expert could be appointed to prepare this work;

§  a Checklist for policy makers and judicial practitioners would be designed for promoting the quality of justice at the national court and individual judge level ("introspection questionnaire"), highlighting those elements which, according to the CEPEJ, are essential for reaching an appropriate level of quality of the justice system (see the on-going work below);

§  in a second phase, concrete measures could be set up on specific and possibly original issues, in order to highlight and detail best practices; the development of contracts between the court and the parties on proceedings or users' satisfaction surveys were stressed as possible issues for further reflection.

      3.   Preparation of a Scheme for promoting the quality of justice

9.    The Group analysed and discussed the document prepared by the Secretariat (CEPEJ-GT-QUAL(2007)9) on the basis of the contributions made by the experts, following the model for  quality proposed in the above-mentioned document.

10.  The Group agreed to stick to the concept of drafting questions targeted at the three levels, being understood that the national level would correspond to a slightly different model than the court and judge levels. The objective of the document would be to put the main players of justice, at each level, in front of their own responsibilities vis-à-vis the quality issues. A new model was discussed accordingly.

11.  The Group agreed that the document would then be structured according to each of the three levels, rather than issue by issue. It entrusted the Secretariat to review the structure of the document accordingly.

12.  The Group split into two sub groups to detail the questions on court proceedings and management of court resources. The conclusions of their reflections were then introduced to the Group.

13.  It was agreed that each expert appointed to play a leading role on each issue[1] would further reflect on the detailed question until 20 October 2007, on the basis of the revised version to be prepared by the Secretariat no later than the end of September, and taking into account the discussion of the present meeting.  A revised draft would then be prepared by the Secretariat to be introduced to the plenary meeting in December. Mr TURTIAINEN agreed to develop the part regarding on proceedings.

Appendix I

Agenda / Ordre du jour

1.         Adoption of the agenda

            Adoption de l’ordre du jour

2.         Information by the Secretariat

            Information du Secrétariat

3.         2007 – 2008 working plan of the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL

Plan de travail du CEPEJ-GT-QUAL pour 2007 et 2008

·         Articulation of the GT-QUAL's activities with other CEPEJ's activities (evaluation of judicial systems) and other bodies' activities / Articulation des activités du GT-QUAL avec d'autres activités de la CEPEJ (évaluation des systèmes judiciaires) et des activités d'autres instances

·         Definition of the concrete outputs of the GT-QUAL until the end of 2008 and planing of the activities / Définition des résultats concrets à atteindre par le GT-QUAL avant la fin 2008 et planification des activités

4.         Preparation of a Scheme for promoting the quality of justice

Préparation d'une Grille pour promouvoir la qualité de la justice

·         Analysis of the contributions prepared by the GT-QUAL experts to develop further the various "fields" of quality / Analyse des contributions des experts du GT-QUAL pour approfondir les différents "éléments" de la qualité de la justice

·         Finalisation of the Scheme / Finalisation de la Grille

Appendix II

List of participants / Liste des participants

EXPERTS

Daimar LIIV, Judge, Tallinn Administrative Court, Harjumaa, ESTONIA (Chair of the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL / Président du CEPEJ-GT-QUAL)

François PAYCHÈRE, Juge, Président du Tribunal administratif de la République et canton de Genève, Genève, SUISSE

André POTOCKI, Conseiller à la Cour de Cassation, Paris, FRANCE

Johannes RIEDEL, Predisent of the Court of Appeal of Köln, Köln, GERMANY (Apologised / Excusé)

John STACEY, Head of Civil & Family Rules and Jurisdiction Branch, Her Majesty's Courts Service, London, UNITED KINGDOM (Vice-Chair of the CEPEJ / Vice-président de la CEPEJ)

Kari TURTIAINEN, District Court Judge, District Court of Oulu, Oulu, FINLAND

Elske VAN DER KAM, Dutch Council for the Judiciary, Quality Department, The Hague, THE NETHERLANDS

Mikhail VINOGRADOV, Senior Consultant, Assistant of the Deputy Chief of the Office, Government of the Russian Federation, Krasnopresnenskaya Naberezhnaya 2, 103274 MOSCOW, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, Tél : +7 495 206 44 26, Fax : +7 495 206 44 62, e-mail : [email protected]; Apologised / Excusé

OBSERVERS / OBSERVATEURS

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

Jean-Jacques KUSTER, Greffier en chef, Tribunal d'instance de Strasbourg, Représentant de l'EUR auprès du Conseil de l'Europe, Strasbourg, FRANCE

WORLD BANK / BANQUE MONDIALE

Klaus DECKER, Counsel, Justice Reform Practice Group, Legal Vice-Presidency, Washington DC USA

EUROPEAN COMMISSION / COMMISSION EUROPEENNE :  Apologised / Excusée

***

OTHER PARTICIPANTS / AUTRES PARTICIPANTS

Julien LHUILLIER, Allocataire-moniteur de la Faculté de droit de Nancy 2, NANCY, FRANCE

Daria SOLENIK, Chercheur à la Faculté de Droit de Nancy-Université, NANCY, FRANCE

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 - 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 28 41, e-mail: [email protected]

Pim ALBERS, Special Advisor to the CEPEJ Secretariat / Conseiller spécial pour le Secrétariat de la CEPEJ,  Tel : +33 3 88 41 47 74, e-mail: [email protected]

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

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

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

Interpreters / Interprètes

Christine TRAPP

Christopher TYCZKA