EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE (CEPEJ)
WORKING GROUP ON CYBERJUSTICE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
(CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST)
2nd meeting (Strasbourg - videoconference, 24 -25 September 2020)
Report prepared by the Secretariat
Directorate General I - Human Rights and the Rule of Law
1. INTRODUCTION
1. The Working Group on Cyberjustice and Artificial intelligence (CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST) of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) held its 2nd meeting on 24 and 25 September 2020. Considering the sanitary situation, the meeting took place via videoconference.
2. The agenda and the list of participants are attached, as Appendices I and II respectively, to this report.
3. The CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST unanimously appointed Maria Giuliana Civinini (Italy) President of the working group for the duration of its mandate.
2. POSSIBLE FUTURE TOOLS TO BE DEVELOPED BY THE CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST
4. In light of the discussions held at its first meeting on the possible topics for future work listed in the Report of the 1st meeting of the CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST (Document CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUSTICE(2020)2), the Working Group held an exchange of views on the different tools that could be developed in the short and medium term.
5. It also examines the relevant international documents in the field of cyberjustice and artificial intelligence (Document CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST(2020)3) and recalls the need for good coordination with the other committees and bodies of the Council of Europe, as well as with European and international bodies working in the field of cyberjustice and artificial intelligence, in particular in order to avoid duplication. In particular, it notes with interest the European Commission's Final Report "Study on the use of innovative technologies in the justice field" which takes stock of the situation in April 2020.
6. The Working Group decides to prepare a Roadmap and a Work Plan (Document CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUSTICE(2020)2). This Roadmap should be guided in particular by the main aims of the CEPEJ which are the improvement of the efficiency and quality of justice, while recalling the need to offer member states and legal professionals attracted by e-justice or artificial intelligence techniques, an appropriate framework and guarantees. The importance of producing concrete and useful tools for the courts is highlighted, and not only collecting good practices.
7. The Working Group also decides:
- that its first areas of work will concern the electronic judicial file/ e-file (creation, transmission, communication and work on the online file), online enforcement of judicial decisions and online dispute resolution (ODR);
- that it is important for these issues to consider the legal, judicial and technical issues at stake; the digitalisation of procedures has indeed become widespread but still leads to many complications on a daily basis; the efficiency of procedures, their practicability and their cost must therefore be taken into account;
- that its future work should be based on the Guidelines on driving change towards Cyberjustice (Document CEPEJ(2016)13) and the Toolkit for the implementation of the Guidelines on Cyberjustice (Document CEPEJ(2019)7) ;
- that artificial intelligence should be considered as a tool and not in a broader perspective;
- that it is necessary to carry out a prior assessment of existing tools in national judicial systems and a needs assessment on these specific topics;
- that in the light of this evaluation, the Working Group will decide on the nature of the tools to be implemented.
8. It therefore instructs the Secretariat to identify the experts who will be responsible for working on the themes contained in the Roadmap and to prepare their terms of reference and contracts so that they can begin work as soon as possible, with a view to obtaining the first feedback reports as early as January 2021.
9. In order to facilitate this evaluation, and the future work of the Working Party, it was agreed to set up a Network of contacts concerning cyberjustice in all Member States.
3. JOINT MEETING WITH THE CEPEJ-GT-QUAL
10. The CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST holds a joint meeting with the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL in order to define precisely, in the light of their mandates, the respective competences and lines of work. Following the creation of the Group on Cyberjustice and Artificial Intelligence, it was indeed necessary to quickly clarify the situation insofar as, until 2019, the Working Group on Quality was competent in the field of cyberjustice and artificial intelligence.
11. It is thus confirmed that the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL remains competent for all tasks aimed at the dissemination of the European Ethical Charter for the use of artificial intelligence in judicial systems or concerning a possible operationalisation/certification of the principles of the Charter. New tools using artificial intelligence or concerning e-justice will be prepared by the CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST. Therefore, the latter will be able to work on ODR, even if mediation, in general, is one of the fields of action of the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL. Thus, the online mediation training modules are not considered to be in the field of e-justice.
12. The Secretariat reminds that, if in the future, a working theme is of interest to two Working Groups, it is always possible to organise joint work, and that in any case, all the work prepared by the Working Groups will eventually become "CEPEJ tools".
4. OTHER BUSINESS
a. Coordination with the Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI)
13. Gregor STROJIN (Slovenia), President of the CAHAI and member of the CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST presented a synthesis of the current work of the CAHAI. The Secretariat specified that the CAHAI will be invited to participate in the meetings of the CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST as an observer as from the next meeting.
14. Merete ECKHARDT (Denmark), member of the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL, remains the CEPEJ representative in the CAHAI and Adis HODZIC (Bosnia and Herzegovina) is appointed representative of the CEPEJ-CYBERJUST in the Working Group on Legal Frameworks (CAHAI-LFG) which should be operational as from January 2021.
b. 3rd meeting of the CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST
15. The next meeting of the CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST should take place in February 2021. It was agreed that if the health situation persists and videoconferencing continues to be imposed, ad hoc meetings could be organised before February, according to the needs and progress of the work.
Appendix I
Agenda
- Adoption of the agenda
Adoption de l’ordre du jour
- Information by the Secretariat
Information du Secrétariat
- Appointment of the President du CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST
Désignation du Président du CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST
- Decision on the future tools of CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST
Décision sur les outils futurs du CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST
- Coordination with the relevant competent bodies, in particular on artificial intelligence
Coordination avec les instances compétentes pertinentes, en particulier concernant l’intelligence artificielle
- Exchanges of views regarding training on CEPEJ/CYBERJUST future tools/
Echanges de vues sur la formation sur les outils futurs CEPEJ/CYBERJUST
- Other business / Divers
Other business
Appendix II : LIST OF PARTICIPANTS / LISTE DES PARTICIPANTS
MEMBERS / MEMBRES
Pedro ALMEIDA, Legal Adviser, European Affairs Coordination Unit, Directorate-General for Justice Policy, Ministry of Justice, Lisbon, PORTUGAL
Maria Giuliana CIVININI, Judge, member of the Italian Judiciary, President of the Tribunal of Pisa, Pisa, ITALY
Adis HODZIC, Senior Advisor for Statistics, Secretariat of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, BOSNIA AND HERZGOVINA
Martin SCHNEIDER, Counsellor, Federal Ministry of Justice, Vienna, AUSTRIA,
Rimantas SIMAITIS, Associate Professor at Vilnius University, Partner at Cobalt law firm, Attorney-at-Law, Arbitrator, Mediator, Vilnius, LITHUANIA
Gregor STROJIN, Advisor to the President, Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA
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DEPUTY MEMBERS / MEMBRES SUPPLEANTS
Flavien FOUQUET, Chargé de mission pour la transition numérique, Ministère de la Justice, Paris, FRANCE
Dusan KUZMANOVIC, Personal Data Protection Officer, Ministry of Justice, Belgrade, SERBIA
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SCIENTIFIC EXPERTS / EXPERTS SCIENTIFIQUES
Martin HACKL, Chief Digital Officer at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Constitutional Affairs, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice, AUSTRIA
Bojan MURSEC, Director, Center for Informatics, Supreme Court, SLOVENIA
Ruslan MIRZAYEV (on Mediation and ADR), Mediator at the Office of Compliance Advisor Ombudsman of the World Bank Group and Partner, Adrem Attorneys Law Firm, AZERBAIJAN
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INVITED DELEGATIONS / DELEGATIONS INVTEES
EGYPT / EGYPTE
Mohamed Mahmoud RASLAN, Vice President of the Egyptian Council of State, CAIRO
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OBSERVERS / OBSERVATEURS
Jacques BUHLER, Secrétaire général suppléant du Tribunal fédéral suisse, Chef des services scientifiques : informatique, bibliothèque et documentation juridique, Chef de projet pour l'introduction du dossier judiciaire électronique et de la communication électronique en Suisse, Lausanne, SUISSE
COUNCIL OF BARS AND LAW SOCIETIES OF EUROPE / CONSEIL DES BARREAUX EUROPÉENS(CCBE)
Simone CUOMO, CCBE Senior Legal Advisor
EUROPEAN EXPERTISE AND EUROPEAN INSTITUTE (EEEI) / INSTITUT EUROPEEN DE L’EXPERTISE ET DE L’EXPERT (EEEI)
Robert RANQUET, Vice President Public Affairs / AI
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF JUDICIAL OFFICERS / UNION INTERNATIONALE DES HUISSIERS DE JUSTICE ET OFFICIERS JUDICIAIRES (UIHJ)
Jos UITDEHAAG, Secrétaire, PAYS-BAS
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SECRETARIAT
DGI - Human Rights and Rule of Law
DGI - Droits de l’Homme et Etat de droit
E-mail: [email protected]
Muriel DECOT, Secretary of the CEPEJ / Secrétaire de la CEPEJ
Clemence BOUQUEMONT, Administrator / Administratrice
Eva KONECNA, Secretary of the Group CEPEJ-SATURN / Secrétaire du groupe CEPEJ-SATURN
Paul MEYER, Administrator / Administrateur
Ioana VOELKEL, Assistant / Assistante