The EJTN organised a one-day workshop for judicial trainers on “Judicial Training for Administrative Judges” at the Latvian Judicial Training Center in Riga, on 30 September 2008.
07/11/2008

The EJTN organised a one-day workshop for judicial trainers on “Judicial Training for Administrative Judges” at the Latvian Judicial Training Center in Riga, on 30 September 2008. The workshop was chaired by Elsa García-Maltrás, EJTN Judicial Head of the Exchange Programme Department.

This event, which is the second of a permanent series of workshops, aimed to provide an in-depth analysis of administrative justice in Europe and training methodologies and needs in the field.

European associations related to administrative judges were represented by Mrs. Martine Baguet, Deputy Secretary General of the Association of the Councils of State and Supreme Jurisdictions of the EU, who provided insight regarding administrative judges´ training needs and priorities and Mrs. Jasna Segan, representative of the Association of European Administrative Judges (AEAJ), who illustrated the existing differences among national administrative jurisdictions whilst at the same time pointed out how, in this strongly fragmented reality, there exist common problems and common priorities.

Mr. Rimantas Simaitis, President of the Working Group on mediation of the Council of Europe´s Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) gave an overview about the ADR (alternative dispute resolutions) instruments in the framework of administrative judges’ competencies. He also recognised ADR benefits in terms of efficiency, reduction of costs and of justice delays.

Finally, Mrs. Marie-Florence Bochard, administrative judge and director of the judicial training at the French Council of State, provided specific insight into recruitment, training and competencies of administrative judges in France. A tour de table followed, where all the participants provided practical insight into their daily training needs and problems, as well as suggestions how they could be met in order to improve the efficiency and quality of administrative justice in Europe.

17 Judicial trainers from 11 EU and non EU countries attended this training event, which was financed by the European Commission within the framework of the Exchange Programme for Judicial Authorities.

Training the trainers: EJTN workshop on European and international case law
02/09/2008

The EJTN organised a one-day workshop for judicial trainers on the use of European and international case law at the National Institute of Magistracy (NIM) in Bucharest on 8th July 2008.

This event, which is the first of a permanent series of workshops, aimed to provide judicial and technical insights on access to the case law and databases of the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) in Luxembourg and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg.

The workshop was opened by Mr. Constantin Branzan, the Director of NIM, and chaired by Judge Victor Hall, EJTN Secretary General.

The European Court of Justice was represented by Mr. Karim Kouri, a Referendaire in the Cabinet of the Judge Camelia Toader (Romania), who described the judicial procedures relating to the access of national judges to the Court with particular emphasis on the preliminary ruling procedure. This was followed by the presentation of Mr. Andrea Gnuffi of the Research and Documentation Unit of the ECJ, who provided a practical insight into the functioning of the case law database of the Court (Curia).

Mr. Francesco Crisafulli, Co-agent of the Italian government at the Permanent Representation of Italy to the Council of Europe, provided an overview of judicial proceedings before the Court. Ms. Vanessa Aeby, from the HUDOC services, provided, among other things, a technical demonstration on access to judicial decisions through the main case law database of the ECtHR.

Mr. Fernando Paulino Pereira, Head of Unit of Civil Cooperation at the Council of the European Union, illustrated new developments in the area of e-justice, databases at the EU level (such as EurLex, European Judicial Network in civil matters, European Judicial Network in criminal matters and N-LEX), and recent initiatives within the framework of the Council’s Working Party on Legal Data Processing (E-law).

25 judicial trainers from 10 European countries attended this training event, which was financed by the European Commission within the framework of the Exchange Programme for Judicial Authorities.

10th EJTN General Assembly
30/09/2008

The EJTN General Assembly took place on 24th-25th June 2008 in Ljubljana under the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

During this two-day event, the application of the Supreme Court of Cyprus for EJTN membership was unanimously approved by the General Assembly. Commenting on the membership of Cyprus, Judge Victor Hall, EJTN Secretary General, stated that “the Network is now a truly EU-wide body comprising national institutions in charge of judicial training from all 27 Member States.”

The application of the Public Institution Centres for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska for observer status was also approved.

The Assembly adopted European Curricula Guidelines on civil law, criminal law, linguistics and training of trainers. Drafted by the “Programmes” Working Group, they lay down, for the first time, guidelines for EJTN action in these areas.

Elections were held for two newly-formed working groups, which will take up office immediately. The “Exchange Programme” Working Group will explore more holistic ways of working this flagship programme of the Network, whilst “Technologies”, will develop, among other things, a distance learning capacity for the EJTN.

Looking ahead to the French Presidency of the EU, Emmanuel Barbe, Head of Department for European and International Affairs of the Ministry of Justice, outlined the main judicial training initiatives planned for the second half of 2008, starting with a major conference on 21-22 July 2008 in Bordeaux.

During a dinner given for the Network by the Slovenian Minister of Justice at Ljubljana Castle, a presentation was made to the former Secretary General, Gilles Charbonnier, to mark the termination of his mandate in March 2008.

Forthcoming meetings
26/06/2008

• Steering Committee, Ljubljana, 23 June 2008
• General Assembly, Ljubljana, 24-25 June 2008

7-8 February 2008: Official launch of the EJTN Exchange Programme for Judicial Authorities at the European Court of Human Rights
20/03/2008

The official launch ceremony of the 2008 Exchange Programme for Judicial Authorities took place on 7th February at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in the presence, among others, of the President of the Court, Jean-Paul Costa, the permanent representative of the European Commission to the Council of Europe, Mrs. Luisella Pavan Woolfe, as well as the Registrar of the Court, M. Erik Fribergh.

It was preceded by the signature by Gilles Charbonnier, Secretary General of the EJTN, of the Memorandum of Understanding with the European Court of Human Rights represented by its Registrar, as well as with Eurojust, represented by Mrs. Ilona Lévai, Hungarian national member.

The official launch was followed by the meeting of the “Exchange Programme” group on 7th and 8th February, which was attended by the contact points of the 37 partner institutions of the Programme for 2008. The meeting allowed for an evaluation of the Programme in 2007 as well as the allocation of exchanges of judges, prosecutors and trainers for 2008.

For more information, please see the official press release of Eurojust below.
EN

Speech of Mr. Jean-Paul Costa, President of the European Court of Human Rights
FR