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Strasbourg, 5 July 2018

CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(2018)15

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE

(CEPEJ)

WORKING GROUP ON THE EVALUATION OF JUDICIAL SYSTEMS

(CEPEJ-GT-EVAL)

34rd meeting

15-17 May 2017

MEETING REPORT

Document prepared by the Secretariat
Directorate General I – Human Rights and Rule of Law

INTRODUCTION

1.     The working Group on the evaluation of judicial systems (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL) of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) held its 34rd meeting on 15 and 17 May 2018 in Strasbourg with Jean-Paul JEAN (France) in the chair. The meeting of the CEPEJ national correspondents was held on 16 May with Georg STAWA (Austria) in the chair.

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

I.          Election of the President of the GT-EVAL

 

3.     The working Group designated Jean-Paul JEAN (France) as President.  

 

II.         2016 – 2018 EVALUATION CYCLE

4.     The Secretariat gave an update on the preparation of the next report "European Judicial Systems" edition 2018 (data 2016):

-       3 questionnaires have been submitted to the CEPEJ national correspondents:

o    The evaluation grid (opened in the CEPEJ-COLLECT tool);

o    The CEPEJ complementary questionnaire on gender equality in judicial systems (opened in the CEPEJ-COLLECT tool);

o    The questionnaire concerning information technologies (sent in excel format)

-       48 States/entities answered the evaluation grid and the questionnaire concerning information technologies: all the States/entities except Northern Ireland, Lichtenstein and San Marino have participated as well as two States having the observer status to the CEPEJ, Israel and, for the first time, Morocco. To this day, 38 States/entities have integrally answered the complementary questionnaire on gender equality in judicial systems.

-       Several States answered belatedly the questionnaire;

-       The quality check phase started beginning of January, mainly through CEPEJ-COLLECT and some data are still subject to change.

5.     The Secretariat evokes the particular situation of Germany: belated replies and some of them incomplete since they only concern certain Länder. Jean Paul JEAN (France) proposes that the German authorities be contacted again in order to solve the situation for this cycle and ameliorate it for the following evaluation cycles.

6.     Other problematic situations identified during the quality control phase of the data are mentioned as for example the definition of litigious and non-litigious cases, the specificity of the enforcement cases or the definition of severe cases and misdemeanour. The working Group decides to deal with them bilaterally with the national correspondents concerned and present during the meeting of the national correspondents.

7.     The experts in charge of drafting the various chapters of the report  present the results of their analyses, identifying initial trends and the need for further clarification or information. Various points were discussed, including:

-       For the chapter on budgets: the taking into account currency and exchange rate variations for countries outside the euro area and the question of the budget allocated to training through questions 6 and 131-0 ;

-       For the chapter concerning the organisation of courts: the question of the specialisation of courts and the evolution of the judicial map ;

-       For the chapter concerning users of justice: the quality of certain responses such as the amount of compensation granted, satisfaction surveys or the mechanism for monitoring judgments and decisions of the ECrHR ;

-       For the chapter on the efficiency and quality of courts and Public Prosecution: the developments on the second and third instances (which are new in this evaluation cycle), the question of the use of the average and median or the use of the appeal rate indicator.

8.     The Secretariat reminds the time schedule until the CEPEJ plenary meeting which will be held from 27 to 29 June:

-       the submission of the final version of the draft reports by the experts is extended to 25 May, taking into account the delay in the transmission of data;

-       the review of these projects by the members of the working Group and by the Secretariat as well as their translations will be done until 15 June;

-       the CEPEJ's collaborative space will then be enriched as and when these draft reports are produced so that CEPEJ members can take note of them before the CEPEJ plenary meeting.

9.     The Secretariat also asks the experts to indicate the most relevant tables and developments that may appear in the presentation document ("overview").

III.        STUDY FOR THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION ON THE FUNCTIONING OF JUDICIAL SYSTEMS IN THE MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (SCOREBOARD OF JUSTICE)

10.   Despite the very good co-operation with the European Commission,  the Secretariat underlines the difficulties encountered in preparing the Study due to the important delay taken by Germany to submit the data. Therefore, the last version of the CEPEJ Study has been submitted in April 2018, instead of 15 November 2017, resulting in delays in the timetable for the other work carried out by the secretariat.

11.  The Secretariat also informs the working Group that the questionnaire of the new CEPEJ Study for the Scoreboard will be open to national correspondents at the beginning of June in the CEPEJ-COLLECT application. This questionnaire will include the same questions as in the previous study and will also be accompanied by a questionnaire on information technology. The deadline for replying to these questionnaires is 21 September in order to enable the first part of the Study to be submitted to the European Commission on 15 November and the second part on 31 December. 

12.  The working Group agrees that, as for the CEPEJ evaluation cycle of the judicial systems, contacts have to be rapidly made with Germany and the European Commission in order to ameliorate the situation.

IV.       PEER REVIEW CO-OPERATION PROCESS

a.     Montenegro

13.  A peer review meeting had been held in Montenegro on 14 and 15 March 2018 with the participation of Georg STAWA (Austria), Jasa VRABEC (Slovenia) and Martina VRDOLJAK (Croatia). It was an opportunity to establish extensive contacts with the persons involved in data collection and to work on the consistency of certain data, while identifying reasons why some data were repeatedly missing throughout the evaluation cycles.

b.    Upcoming peer reviews

14.  The Secretariat informed the working Group that the Principality of Andorra wishes to host a peer review meeting at the end of 2018 in order to solve some persistent problems in the data collection and to sensitise the various actors involved in the collection on the interest of the statistical data collected by the CEPEJ.

 

V.         CEPEJ SPECIFIC STUDY ON THE LEGAL PROFESSIONS

15.  The President informs the working Group about a meeting held with the representatives of the CNUE (Council of the Notariats of the European Union), and that has led to a better understanding of how data was collected by the CEPEJ and the CNUE as well as to make a first assessment of the Study already published on CEPEJ-STAT since December 2017. The representative of the CNUE, Mr Geertjan Sarnee, confirms CNUE’s will of continuing this collaboration with the CEPEJ and to update, as soon as 2016 data are available, its contribution. The CNUE also confirms its wish to participate in an update of the questions concerning the notarial profession that will be presented to the working Group Evaluation during the meeting in November 2018.

16.  The working Group reviews the report proposed by UIHJ (International Union of Judicial Officers) and decides to publish it in CEPEJ-STAT. An update of this document will be done with the upcoming available data (2016) and the study will be then presented in French and in English.  

VI.       AD HOC WORKING GROUP ENTRUSTED WITH THE REVISION OF THE DEFINITIONS USED BY THE CEPEJ

17.  Simone KRESS (Germany), who represents the Evaluation working Group within the Ad hoc Working Group in charge of the revision of the CEPEJ definitions, informs the Group that a second meeting of the Ad hoc Group took place in Cologne on 30 January 2018. The Group then confirmed its decision to propose to the CEPEJ a document in the form of a glossary and continues its analysis on definitions, with the exception of those concerning mediation. A further meeting is planned for September 2018, with the participation of an expert appointed by the Mediation working Group. 

VII.         ACCESS REQUESTS TO THE CEPEJ DATA BASE

18.  The working Group examines the access requests to the CEPEJ Data Base that have been sent to the Secretariat. The Group decides to give its decision electronically after an additional week of delay.

Annexe I

AGENDA / ORDRE DU JOUR

1.         Adoption of the agenda / Adoption de l’ordre du jour

2.         Information by the members of the Working Group and the Secretariat / Information des membres du groupe de travail et du Secrétariat

3.         Election of the President of the GT-EVAL / Election du Président du GT-EVAL

4.         2016 – 2018 evaluation cycle / Cycle d’évaluation 2016 – 2018

a)     Main problems during the data collection and quality control / Principaux problèmes lors de la collecte et du contrôle de qualité des données

·         Inconsistency and missing data / Données incohérentes et manquantes

·         Specific problems (for example Albania, Germany, Russia, Serbia) / Problèmes particuliers (par exemple Albanie, Allemagne, Russie, Serbie)

·         Organisation of administrative cases per instances / Organisation des affaires administratives par instance

·         Définition of litigious/non litigious cases / Définition des affaires contentieuses/non contentieuses

·         Specificity of enforcement cases / Spécificité des affaires relatives à l’exécution

·         Definition of misdemineaor/severe cases (Questions 94, 98 et 100) / Définition des affaires mineures/sévères (Questions 94, 98 et 100)

·         Harmonisation of answers (Questions 6/7, 2eme/3eme instance) / Harmonisation des réponses (Questions 6/7, 2eme/3eme instance)

b)    Preparation of the report « European judicial systems » and the overview through its various chapters/ Préparation du rapport «  systèmes judiciaires européens » et du document de présentation à travers ses différents chapitres

·         Budgets of judicial systems / Budgets des systèmes judiciaires

·         Judicial Staff and lawyers / Les personnels de justice et les avocats

·         Gender equality / La parité hommes-femmes

·         Court organisation / L’organisation des tribunaux

·         Users of the judicial system / Les usagers de la justice 

·        Efficiency of courts and public prosecutors’ offices / Efficacité des tribunaux et des

               ministères publics

With the participation of the different experts entrusted with the drafting of the different chapters : Francesco Perrone, Federica Viapiana, Hélène Pauliat, Caroline Foulquier-Expert, Fotis Karayannopoulou, Jasa Vrabec, Julinda Beqiraj / En présence des experts chargés de la rédaction des différents chapitres : Francesco Perrone, Federica Viapiana, Hélène Pauliat, Caroline Foulquier-Expert, Fotis Karayannopoulou, Jasa Vrabec, Julinda Beqiraj

5.             Preparation of the 12th Plenary meeting of the Network of national correspondents / Préparation de la 12ème réunion plénière du Réseau des correspondants nationaux

6.             Study for the European Commission on the functioning of judicial systems in the member States of the European Union (Scoreboard of justice) / Etude pour la Commission européenne sur le fonctionnement des systèmes judiciaires dans les Etats membres de l’Union européenne (Tableau de bord de la justice)

7.            Peer evaluation cooperation process / Processus de coopération à travers une évaluation par les pairs

  1. Peer evaluation in Montenegro / Evaluation par les pairs au Montenegro
  2. Next peer evaluation / Prochaines évaluations par les pairs

8.            Specific Study on the judicial professionnals – Contribution of UIHJ / Etude spécifique sur les professions juridiques – Contribution de l’UIHJ

9.            Ad hocWorking Group entrusted with the revision of the definitions used by CEPEJ / Groupe de Travail ad hoc chargé de la révision des définitions utilisées par la CEPEJ

10.          Request for an access to the CEPEJ data base / Demandes d’accès à la base de données de la CEPEJ

11.          Any other business / Questions diverses

Annexe II

List of Participants / Liste des participants

Members / Membres

Ramin GURBANOV, Judge, Baku City Yasamal District court, BAKU, AZERBAIJAN, Tel: +994 12510 0444 / +994 50214 0444, e-mail: [email protected]; (Vice President of CEPEJ / Vice-Président de la CEPEJ)   

Adis HODZIC, Senior Advisor for Statistics High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kraljice Jelene 88, 7100 SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, e-mail: [email protected]

Jean-Paul JEAN, Président de chambre à la Cour de cassation, 5 Quai de l’Horloge, 75055 PARIS CEDEX, FRANCE, Tél. : +33 (0)1 44 32 94 65/ sec. : +33 (0)1 46 34 67 40, e-mail : [email protected]

Simone KREβ, Vice-President, Landgericht Köln, Luxemburger Str. 101, 50939 KÖLN, GERMANY,
Tel: +49 221 477 2712, Tel: +49 221 477 2700, e-mail: [email protected]

Jaša VRABEC, Head of the Office for Court Management Development, Supreme Court, Tavčarjeva 9, 1000 LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA, Tel: +386 1 434 27 85, e-mail: [email protected]

Martina VRDOLJAK, Head of department for statistics, analytic and strategic development of Judiciary, Directorate for organisation of Judiciary, Ministry of justice, Ulica grada Vukovara 49, 10000 ZAGREB, CROATIA, Tel: + 01/3714-345, e-mail: [email protected]

***

SCIENTIFIC EXPERTS / EXPERTS SCIENTIFIQUES

Christophe KOLLER, Directeur opérationnel, ESEHA, Herzogstr. 25, 3014 BERNE, SUISSE, e-mail: [email protected]

Ivana NINČIĆ, Ministry of Justice, 22-26 Namanjina St. BELGRADE, SERBIA, e-mail: [email protected]

***

EXPERTS

Julinda BEQIRAJ, Associate Senior Research Fellow, Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), 17 Russell Square, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, e-mail: [email protected]

Caroline EXPERT-FOULQUIER, Maître de conférences de droit public, Université de Limoges, Directrice adjointe de l’Institut de préparation à l’administration générale (IPAG) de Limoges, 32 rue Turgot,

87 000 LIMOGES, FRANCE, e-mail : [email protected]

Fotis A. KARAYANNOPOULOS, Lawyer, 10 Kapsali street, 106 74, ATHENS, GREECE, e-mail: [email protected]

Hélène PAULIAT, Professeur de droit public (OMIJ), Présidente honoraire de l'Université de Limoges, Faculté de droit et des sciences économiques, 5, rue Félix Eboué, LIMOGES, FRANCE, e-mail : [email protected]

Francesco PERRONE, Juge, Tribunal de Padoue, PADOUE, ITALIE, e-mail : [email protected]

Federica VIAPIANA, Chercheuse et consultante, BOLOGNE, ITALIE, e-mail : [email protected]

Jaša VRABEC, Head of the Office for Court Management Development, Supreme Court, Tavčarjeva 9, 1000 LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA, Tel: +386 1 434 27 85, e-mail: [email protected]

***

PRESIDENT OF CEPEJ / PRESIDENT DE LA CEPEJ

Georg STAWA, Secretary General, Federal Ministry of Justice, Museumstrasse 7, 1016 VIENNA, AUSTRIA, Tel: +43 1 52 152  22 80, +43 676 89 89 122 80, e-mail: [email protected]

***

Observers / Observateurs

COUNCIL OF THE NOTARIATS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (CNEU) / CONSEIL DES NOTARIATS DE L’UNION EUROPEENNE (CNUE)

Geertjan SARNEEL, Meijling & Sarneel Notarissen en Adviseurs, Vestiging Kapelle, THE NETHERLANDS, Tel: +31 (0)113 343310, e-mail: [email protected]

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

Jean-Raymond LEMAIRE, Président de l’EEEI, 38 rue de Viliers, 92300 LEVALLOIS, e-mail : [email protected]  

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

Françoise ANDRIEUX, Présidente de l’UIHJ, 6 place du Colonel Fabien, 75019 PARIS, FRANCE Apologised / Excusée

European Union of Rechtspfleger / Union européenne des greffiers de justice et Rechtspfleger (EUR)

Jean-Jacques KUSTER, Président honoraire, 24 rue de la Canardière, 67100 STRASBOURG, FRANCE,

Tél : +33 (0)6 83 61 78 05, e-mail : [email protected]

Vivien WHYTE, Président de l’Union européenne des Greffiers de Justice, Directeur des services de greffe judiciaires, Tribunal de grande instance de Strasbourg, 1 quai Finkmatt, STRASBOURG, FRANCE, e-mail : [email protected]

CONSEIL DE L’UNION EUROPEENNE

Christine ROGER, Directrice  - Justice et Affaires intérieures, Bruxelles, BELGIQUE Apologised / Excusé

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Per IBOLD, International Relations Officier, DG Justice, Unit 02, Square Frère Orban, 10, Brussels; Belgium

E-mail: [email protected]

CNRS

Emeline LLAS – chercheur, e-mail: mailto:[email protected]

***

OBSERVERS ECHR / OBSERVATEURS CEDH

Elena TARASYANTS, e-mail : [email protected]

Tamara TRIFONOVA, e-mail : [email protected]

***

COUNCIL OF EUROPE / CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE

Secretariat

Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law (DG I)

Division for the Independence and Efficiency of Justice/

Direction Générale des Droits de l’Homme et Etat de droit (DG I)

Division pour l’indépendance et l’efficacité de la justice

Fax: +33 (0)3 88 41 37 43

E-mail: [email protected]

Stéphane LEYENBERGER, Executive Secretary of the CEPEJ / Secrétaire exécutif de la CEPEJ, Tel: +33 (0)3 88 41 34 12, e-mail: [email protected]

Muriel DECOT, Co-Secretary of the CEPEJ / Co-secrétaire de la CEPEJ, Tél: +33 (0)3 90 21 44 55, e-mail : [email protected]

Christel SCHURRER, Administrator, Secretary of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL / Administratrice, Secrétaire du CEPEJ-GT-EVAL, Tél : +33 (0)3 90 21 56 97, e-mail: [email protected]

Lidija NAUMOVSKA, Administrator, Statistician / Administratrice, statisticienne, Tél: +33 (0)3 88 41 22 49, e-mail: [email protected]

Yannick MENECEUR, Administrator, Secretary of the CEPEJ SATURN, / Administrateur, Secrétaire du CEPEJ SATURN, Tél: +33 (0)3 90 21 53 39, e-mail : [email protected]

Paul MEYER, Project Manager/Gestionnaire de projets, Tél : +33 (0)3 90 21 55 22, e-mail : [email protected]

Guergana LAZAROVA-DECHAUX, Principal Administrative Assistant / Assistante administrative principale, Tél: +33 (0)3 90 21 62 11, e-mail: [email protected] 

Annette SATTEL, Communication, Tél: +33 (0)3 88 41 39 04, e-mail: [email protected]

Ioana VOELKEL, Assistant/Assistante, Secretariat of the CEPEJ / Secrétariat de la CEPEJ, Tél : +33(0)3 90 21 42 94, e-mail: [email protected]

Fiona MALAJ, Trainee / Stagiaire

***

INTERPRETERS / INTERPRETES

Amanda BEDDOWS

Cynera JAFFREY

Nicolas GUITTONNEAU