Strasbourg, June 21st 2011                                                                  CCJE-GT(2011)9

WORKING GROUP OF THE
CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL OF EUROPEAN JUDGES

(CCJE-GT)

Report of the 21st meeting

Strasbourg

15-16 June 2011

Secretariat document

prepared by the Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs


 

I.    Introduction

1.        The Working Group of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE-GT) held its 21st meeting in Strasbourg on 15th and 16th of June 2011. Mr. Gerhard REISSNER (Austria) chaired the meeting.

2.        The agenda and the list of participants are appended to this report (Appendix I and II respectively).

II. Communication by the President of the CCJE, the president of the CCJE-GT and the Secretariat

3.        The President of the CCJE, M.Orlando ALFONSO, informed the CCJE-GT of several meetings he attended to represent the CCJE, in particular, in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) on the 28th-29th of April 2011, following the invitation of the Venice Commission and in Rome on the 10th of June 2011 following the invitation of the Italian High Judicial Council.

4.        The Secretariat reminded that an ad hoc Working Group of the CCJE, composed by some members of the Bureau and by M. A. LACABARATS (France), are currently preparing a synthesis report on all of the bilateral activities of the CCJE for the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. It will be submitted to the CCJE for adoption during the next plenary meeting (Strasbourg, 7-9 November 2011).

III. Preparation of Opinion No.14 on “Justice and Information Technology (IT)”

5.        The CCJE-GT thanked the expert, Ms Dory Reiling, for the document that she had prepared (Document CCJE-GT(2011)7) based on the detailed structure that had been decided in the previous meeting of the Working Group (Document CCJE-GT(2011)5). The expert explained that she had articulated every theme of the structure around several topics: article 6, opportunities, practice and realisation, what is needed and recommendations.

6.        The Secretariat specified that the document had been read once by the Bureau of the CCJE, who deleted some descriptive passages that are not relevant in an Opinion (Document CCJE-GT(2011)8). Nevertheless, according to the expert, a number of definitions should still be given in the Opinion, due to the techniticity of the subject.

7.        The CCJE-GT proceeded to an exchange of views on the document. According to the CCJE-GT, the Opinion should be brief and should be centered on the essential message that the Opinion wants to convey: to protect the independence as well as taking into account that information technology constitutes a reel progress in the administration of Justice. The Opinion should be the opportunity to ask the question of the possibility, in the future, to carry out procedures without judges.

8.        The CCJE-GT agreed to divide itself in three groups to draft the Opinion. It is structured as followed:

I)      Introduction

II)     Scope of the Opinion

III)    IT and access to Justice

IV)   IT in the procedure

V)    The independence of judges

VI)   IT governance

VII)  Conclusions and recommendations

9.             It agreed on the following elements :

§     June 17: following the sending by the Secretariat of the draft Opinion, M. G. REISSNER and then, M. A. LACABARATS will proceed to a first lecture;

§     End of June/beginning of July: the drafted Opinion will be sent to all the members of the CCJE-GT who may comment before beginning of September;

§     Meanwhile, the Secretariat will proceed to the verification of the quality of both English and French texts;

§     The CCJE-GT firmly insists on the necessity to explain to the members of the CCJE, that only written comments sent in advance to the Secretariat, will be examined during the plenary meeting.


ANNEX I

AGENDA

1.        Opening of the meeting

2.        Adoption of the agenda

3.        Information by the President of the CCJE, the President of the CCJE-GT and the Secretariat

4.        Preparation of the draft Opinion No. 14 on “Justice and Information Technology”

Annex II

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

CROATIA / CROATIE :

Mr Duro SESSA, Judge, Supreme Court, ZAGREB

France :

M. Alain LACABARATS, Conseiller à la Cour de Cassation, Directeur du Service de Documentation et d’Etudes de la Cour de Cassation, PARIS

LITHUANIA / LITUANIE :

Mr Virgilijus VALANČIUS, President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, President of the European Association of Judges, VILNIUS

NETHERLANDS / PAYS BAS

Mr W. Van LIEROP, Justice, Court of Appeal for Trade and Industry, THE HAGUE

NORWAY / NORVEGE:

Mr Nils A. ENGSTAD, Judge, Halogaland Court of Appeal, TROMSØ

SLOVENIA / SLOVENIE :

Ms. Nina BETETTO, Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, LJUBLJANA

SPAIN/ ESPAGNE:

M. José Francisco COBO SÀENZ, Magistrato, President de Chambre, Provincial de Navarra, PAMPLONA

“THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA” / “L’EX-REPUBLIQUE YOUGOSLAVE DE MACEDOINE”:

Mrs Aneta ARNAUDOVSKA, Juge, Director of the Academy for training of judges and prosecutors, SKOPJE

***

Members of the CCJE-BU /Membres du the CCJE-BU

AUSTRIA/AUTRICHE : (President of the CCJE-GT/Président du CCJE-GT)

Mr Gerhard REISSNER, President, District Court of Floridsdorf, Vice-President of the Austrian Judges Association, Gerichtsgasse 6, 1210 Vienna

BELGIUM/BELGIQUE :

M. Paul MAFFEI, Conseiller à la Cour de Cassation, Place Poelaert 1, 1000 Bruxelles

ITALY ITALIE:

M. Raffaele SABATO, Juge à la Cour de Naples, Viale Europa, 130, 80053, Castellammare di stabia, Naples

PORTUGAL: (President of the CCJE/ Président du CCJE)

M. Orlando AFONSO, Juge à la Cour Suprême, rue Général Humberto Delgado 43, 2e ét.e., Cova da Piedade, 2800-423, Almada

***

SCIENTIFIC EXPERT / EXPERT CONSULTANT

Ms Dory REILING, Vice-President sector bestuursrecht, Rechtbank Amsterdam, S 1.34, e-mail : [email protected]

***

COUNCIL OF EUROPE’S SECRETARIAT /

SECRETARIAT DU CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE

Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs/

Direction générale des droits de l’Homme et des affaires juridiques

E-mail : [email protected]

Fax : + 33 (0) 88 41 37 43

Muriel DECOT, Secretary of the CCJE / Secrétaire du CCJE, Tel: + 33 3 90 21 44 55, e-mail: [email protected]

Jean-Pierre GEILLER, Documentation, Tel : + 33 3 88 41 22 27, e-mail : [email protected]

Annette SATTEL, Communication, Tel: + 33 3 88 41 39 04, e-mail: [email protected]

Emily WALKER, Assistant/Assistant, Tel : + 33 3 90 21 48 39, e-mail : [email protected]

Natacha LEBAINDRE, Trainee/Stagiaire, Tel : + 33 3 90 21 56 36, e-mail: [email protected]