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WORKING GROUP
OF THE CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL OF EUROPEAN JUDGES
(CCJE-GT)
14th and 15th Meeting Reports
Lisbon (Portugal), 22-24 April 2008
Tartu (Estonia), 16-18 June 2008
Note from the Secretariat
established by the Directorate General for Human Rigths and Legal Affairs
At these two meetings, pursuant to the terms of reference given to it by the Committee of Ministers, the CCJE-GT prepared draft Opinion No. 11(2008) on “the quality of judicial decisions”
I....... INTRODUCTION
1. The Working Party of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE-GT) held its 14th meeting in Lisbon (Portugal) from 22 to 24 April 2008 and its 15th meeting from 16 to 18 June 2008 in Tartu (Estonia). The meetings were chaired by Mr Orlando AFONSO (Portugal), Vice-Chair of the CCJE. The list of participants at these meetings is set out in Appendix I and the agendas in Appendix II.
2. The CCJE-GT extends its warm thanks to the Portuguese Judicial Service Commission for its invitation to hold its 14th meeting at its premises in Lisbon and the Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice for the excellent organisation of the Conference on judicial timing and the quality of judicial decisions (see the programme in Appendix IV), which was held immediately after the Working Party meeting and gave its members the opportunity to meet members of the Portuguese judicial community. The Secretariat congratulated Mr Orlando AFONSO on his efficiency in organising and co-ordinating these events.
3. The CCJE-GT also thanked Ms Julia LAFFRANQUE (Estonia) for inviting it to hold its 15th meeting in Tartu and the Supreme Court of Estonia for organising the Conference on the quality of judicial decisions, which provided the opportunity to complete the comparison of experiences begun in Lisbon with national judges on the subject of the 2008 Opinion (see programme in Appendix V). The Working Party appreciated the comfortable working conditions and the warm welcome offered by its Portuguese and Estonian hosts.
4. The Chair welcomed Ms Maria CIVININI (Italy), author of the report on the quality of judicial decisions, which was to serve as a basis for the CCJE’s draft Opinion. The CCJE-GT warmly thanked the scientific expert for the high calibre of her work.
II...... INFORMATION BY THE CHAIR OF THE CCJE AND THE SECRETARIAT
5. The CCJE-GT members noted with satisfaction that, at their 1015th meeting (16 January 2008), the Ministers’ Deputies:
§ had approved the CCJE’s terms of reference for 2008 and 2009;
§ had taken note of Opinion No. 10 of the CCJE on “Councils for the Judiciary in the service of society”;
The Ministers’ Deputies had also used the opportunity to hold an exchange of views with Mr R. SABATO, President of the CCJE. They had endorsed all of the documents presented to them.
III. D RAFT OPINION No. 11 ON THE QUALITY OF JUDICIAL DECISIONS
6. The CCJE-GT pointed out that, in keeping with its terms of reference, the CCJE was instructed to “adopt an opinion in 2008 for the attention of the Committee of Ministers on the quality of judicial decisions; in this connection, the CCJE will examine namely the constitutive elements of the quality of a judicial decision and propose concrete means to improve the quality of judicial decisions, taking into account the satisfaction of users of justice. This work will be carried out in consultation with the European Court of Human Rights and the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ)”.
7. In this context:
§ the Secretariat had sent the CCJE delegations, members and observers, a questionnaire on the quality of judicial decisions (Document CCJE(2007)17) and had prepared a document containing the replies sent by forty member states and observers (Document CCJE(2008)1);
§ on the basis of the replies to the questionnaire and their own experience, Ms Maria CIVININI, the CCJE expert on this subject, had prepared a report (Document CCJE(2008)4) on the current situation in Council of Europe member states with regard to the quality of judicial decisions.
8. First of all, the CJE-GT stressed the need to define the terms “judicial decisions” and “quality”. Although the term “quality” was omnipresent in current debates concerning justice, it could be understood in different ways depending on each country’s legal culture and be considered with varying degrees of importance. The Working Party welcomed the opportunity to address this theme concerning first and foremost judges, who ought therefore to give it careful consideration.
9. The CCJE-GT noted that care should be taken to focus on the quality of judicial decisions, without expanding the debate to include the quality of justice in general, on which other bodies (such as the CEPEJ) had already written numerous reports and studies. It was also important to underline the crucial role of judges in making quality decisions. It would therefore be a very good idea to provide judges with a concrete, user-friendly tool which would help them improve the quality of their decisions.
10. It was agreed to address the theme in two parts:
§ the indicators of the quality of judicial decisions, irrespective of whether these were inherent elements to the decision (the decision itself, the hearing, the procedure and the management of the case-file and the execution of the decision) or external elements to the decision (the judge’s environment, other professionals or legislation);
§ the evaluation of the quality of judicial decisions: the means and methods of evaluation, the organisation and structure of evaluation.
11. The Working Party decided to begin by defining the key elements that should be addressed in the opinion. With this in mind, at the end of its 14th meeting it prepared a “preliminary structure” for Opinion No. 11 » (Document CCJE-GT(2008)1 – See Appendix III). It was decided that, in preparation for the 15th meeting, the members of the Working Party would share the drafting of the various parts of the preliminary draft opinion, using the preliminary structure as a basis. The Working Party also asked the Secretariat to co-ordinate the various contributions and to draft the introduction and the general context.
12. At its 15th meeting, the CCJE-GT examined the draft opinion prepared on the basis of its members’ contributions (Document CCJE-GT(2008)2). After discussing it, the draft Opinion was amended. It was agreed that in July the finalised draft opinion would be sent to all members of the CCJE, who would be able to sent their comments to the Secretariat in writing before 5 September 2008.
13. The text, including all of the comments, would be submitted to the CCJE for consideration, with a view to its adoption at its 9th plenary meeting in November.