The mission of the Higher Council of Justice (HCJ), recently created, is amongst others to prepare the directives and programmes for the permanent training of judicial officers (judges and public prosecutors) and the judicial training period.

The Minister of Justice, whose department moreover deals with the implementation and the logistic support in co-operation with the HCJ, must ratify these programmes and directives. An average of 200 training sessions or cycles - the co-ordination of which mostly is entrusted to a judicial officer (a judge or a public prosecutor) - is organised each semester.

The HCJ is also responsible for deciding on the programmes and organising the exams giving access to the judiciary order (judges and public prosecutors); such as, for instance, the professional capacity exams (giving direct access to the judiciary order) and the judicial training admission exams (which allows successful candidates, after a three-year period, to be trained consecutively in a public prosecutor's department, an " external department" - lawyer, notary, bailiff - and a court). Every year, hundreds of candidates sit the exams, with a success rate of 10 to 15 per cent.

At present, two major issues have to be tackled by the HCJ: the creation of a judiciary school for judges and public prosecutors and the dichotomy between the setting up of the programmes by the HCJ and their current implementations by the Minister of Justice.

Contacts:

Conseil Supérieur de la Justice
Avenue Louise 65/1
B-1050 Bruxelles

Tèl: +32 2 535 16 16
Fax: +32 2 535 16 20
E-mail: training@csj.be
Website: http://www.csj.be