Strasbourg, 19 April 2021

CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST(2021)7

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE

(CEPEJ)

WORKING GROUP ON CYBERJUSTICE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

(CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST)

3^rd meeting (Strasbourg - videoconference, 11 – 12 March 2021)

MEETING REPORT

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 3^rd meeting on 11 and 12 March 2021. 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.

2. VIDEOCONFERENCING IN JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS

3. Alexandre PALANCO (France) and Marek ŚWIERCZYŃSKI (Poland) presented the first draft guidelines on videoconferencing in judicial proceedings (CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST(2021)1) that were developed in cooperation with the Taskforce set up in January 2021 for this purpose[1]. The scope of this document encompasses administrative, civil and criminal proceedings. The section on criminal proceedings drew inspiration from the report on the use of videoconferencing and the right to a fair trial in the light of the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights prepared by A. PALANCO (CYBERJUST-GT-CYBERJUST(2021)2).

4. The Council of the Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) presented the recent CCBE Guidance on the use of remote working tools by lawyers and remote court proceedings.

5. The Group appreciates the quality of the document prepared in a very short time frame. It is noted that the rich documentation already available should be considered when revising the guidelines. The guidelines, which must be clear, short and practical, should encourage the use of videoconferencing in courts even after the pandemic. The specificities applying to videoconferencing in criminal proceedings should be highlighted while common features of administrative, civil, and criminal proceedings regrouped under general requirements.

6. The CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST entrusted the taskforce with the development of the guidelines, to be then examined by the Group during an ad hoc meeting to be convened at the beginning of May 2021. The revised guidelines could then be submitted to the next CEPEJ plenary meeting (16-17 June 2021) for adoption.

3. ELECTRONIC COURT FILING (E-FILING)

7. Giulio BORSARI (Italy), Harold EPINEUSE (France) and Alexandra TSVETKOVA (Bulgaria) presented the draft report on electronic filing of court documents: from paper files to e-files (CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST(2021)4). The document presents state of play regarding existing practices concerning e-filing in ten selected member states covering digitalisation of courts and prosecutor registers, creation of, work with and communication of e-files as well as access of users to e-documentation. The document is based on a questionnaire and interviews with representatives of the selected countries and captures good practices and difficulties in the field of e-filing and digitalisation. The document also contains proposals for tools to create a European e-Justice Index and monitoring and analysis of all management processes and performance indicators. These tools should provide information on the digitalisation process in the countries, including good practices and difficulties encountered.

8. The Group considers that this document provides an excellent basis for the development of the guidelines and a roadmap towards e-filing and digitalisation of judicial procedures. The experts were instructed to pursue their work and prepare the final report for the meeting of the Working Group in September 2021. The revised document should elaborate in particular on interoperability and performance highlighting the need for integrated systems between judicial and enforcement processes. It should also provide more structured recommendations reflecting key principles and technical and organisational requirements related to e-filing.

9. In addition, the proposals for creating the European e-justice index and the tool for monitoring and analysis of management processes and performance indicators should be further developed and discussed at the meeting in September 2021. The Secretariat of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL could be invited to the meeting to present their questionnaire on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the ICT Index developed by CEPEJ-GT-EVAL.

4. ON-LINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (ODR)

10. Harold EPINEUSE (France) and Ruslan MIRZAYEV (Azerbaijan) presented the draft report on on-line dispute resolution (CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST(2021)3) that was developed through research, survey and testing of the online ADR platforms. The report analyses the state of play on the online ADR in selected member States as well as non-European countries, highlighting common features and differences and good practices. The report covers all out-of-court dispute resolution mechanisms (except arbitration), concentrating on mechanisms based on on-line procedures. The areas of research include capacity-building, procedure of online ADR, exchange of documentation, use of artificial intelligence, confidentiality, transparency and effects on the parties, neutrals and attorneys.

11. The Group appreciates the quality of the document prepared in a very short time frame. The experts were instructed to pursue their work and prepare the final report for the meeting of the Working Group in September 2021. The new document should elaborate on the structure of the future repository of best practices and include references to Council of Europe documents related to ADR and digital technology. The close link between ADR and videoconferencing was highlighted, the latter forming part of the online ADR.

5. ON-LINE ENFORCEMENT OF JUDICIAL DECISIONS (E-ENFORCEMENT)

12. Jos UITDEHAAG (the Netherlands) presented the draft report on e-enforcement (CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST(2021)5). The document is based on replies to a questionnaire and captures good practices and difficulties. The document presents the state of play of the existing practices, such as case management system in the field of enforcement of judicial decisions, a register of debtors, e-judgments, on-line procedures and environment to enforce decisions.

13. The Group appreciates the quality of the document. The expert was instructed to pursue his work and prepare the final report for the meeting of the Working Group in September 2021. The new document should elaborate on key principles and technical and organisational requirements laying down the basis for guidelines on setting up e-services for an effective system of on-line enforcement of judicial decisions. The link between e-enforcement and e-filing should be made as a means of speeding up procedures and respect reasonable time requirements. Additionally, the expert was instructed to reflect on a possible tool which could be developed by the CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST in the field of on-line enforcement of judicial decisions. This could, for example, be a system of e-auctions given their widespread use in the countries.

6. REPOSITORY OF BEST PRACTICES

14. To implement its roadmap and workplan, the CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST had an exchange of views on the different steps to develop a repository of good practices in the field of cyberjustice: it should be user-friendly, accessible and cost effective, serving as a source of information on the existing good practices and solutions. The structure of the repository should be designed in a way that it can easily include new themes (i.e. artificial intelligence). The repository will be filled predominantly with information collected through the European Cyberjustice Network. The Group agreed that a taskforce[2] will be created to prepare the draft repository to be presented at the meeting of the Working Group in September 2021.

7. EUROPEAN CYBERJUSTICE NETWORK

15. The terms of reference of the European Cyberjustice Network (ECN) were adopted at the 34^th plenary meeting of the CEPEJ (December 2020), followed by a formal call for nominations to which 20 countries responded[3] (CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST(2021)6). The CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST instructed the Secretariat to send a reminder to the member states and observers which have not replied yet to the call for nominations.

16. The Group agreed to organise a first meeting of the ECN in the second semester 2021. The agenda, to be agreed during the meeting of the Working Group in September 2021, could include the presentation of the terms of reference and the on-going work of the CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST and an exchange of views on the possible future tasks of the ECN, in particular the collection of good practices for the future repository. Furthermore, the dissemination of the work of CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST on videoconferencing in judicial proceedings could be in the focus of the ECN for its first meeting.

7. OTHER BUSINESS

17. The next meeting of the CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST will take place on 23-24 September 2021. An ad hoc meeting could be organised to finalise the draft guidelines on videoconferencing in judicial proceedings to be presented to the CEPEJ plenary meeting in June 2021 (see item 2 below).

Appendix I: AGENDA /ORDRE DU JOUR

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, Apologised / Excusé

Maria Giuliana CIVININI, Judge, member of the Italian Judiciary, President of the Tribunal of Pisa, Pisa, ITALY, (Chair of the CEPEJ-CYBERJUST / Présidente du CEPEJ-CYBERJUST)

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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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, Mediator at the Office of Compliance Advisor Ombudsman of the World Bank Group and Partner, Adrem Attorneys Law Firm, AZERBAIJAN

Giulio BORSARI, Expert on information technology, Roma, ITALY

Harold EPINEUSE, Chargé de mission à l’Institut des Hautes Etudes sur la justice, 8 rue Chanoinesse, 75004 Paris, FRANCE

Mathias MAURER, Counsellor, Federal Ministry of Justice, Vienna, AUSTRIA

Alexandre PALANCO, Doctor in Public Law, Lyon, FRANCE

Marek ŚWIERCZYŃSKI, Law Professor, Warsaw, POLAND

Alexandra TSVETKOVA, expert in IT and Technology-related Legal, Ethical and Policy Issues, Sofia, BULGARIA

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INVITED DELEGATIONS / DELEGATIONS INVTEES

EGYPT / EGYPTE

Mohamed Mahmoud RASLAN, Vice President of the Egyptian Council of State, CAIRO

MOROCCO / MAROC

Iliass AHALLI, Ministère de la Justice, RABAT

REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA / REPUBLIQUE DE MOLDOVA

Victoria PALANCIUC, Head of the Agency for Court Administration (ACA) and CEPEJ Correspondent, CHISINAU

Alexadru VOLOSIN, Head of court administration Division of the Agency, CHISINAU

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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, Apologised / Excusé

COUNCIL OF BARS AND LAW SOCIETIES OF EUROPE / CONSEIL DES BARREAUX EUROPÉENS(CCBE) 

Simone CUOMO, CCBE Senior Legal Advisor

Martin SACLEUX, Legal Advisor

EUROPEAN EXPERTISE AND EUROPEAN INSTITUTE (EEEI) / INSTITUT EUROPEEN DE L’EXPERTISE ET DE L’EXPERT (EEEI) 

Claude VALLET, membre du comité exécutif de l’EEEI

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF JUDICIAL OFFICERS / UNION INTERNATIONALE DES HUISSIERS DE JUSTICE ET OFFICIERS JUDICIAIRES (UIHJ)

Jos UITDEHAAG, Secrétaire, PAYS-BAS

***

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, Tel: +33 (0)3 90 21 44 55, e-mail: muriel.dé[email protected]

Eva KONECNA, Secretary of the Group CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST / Secrétaire du groupe CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST, Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 23 07, e-mail: [email protected]