CCJE-GT(2016)4

Strasbourg, 18 October 2016                                                                                           

WORKING GROUP OF THE

CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL OF EUROPEAN JUDGES

(CCJE-GT)

Report of the 31^st meeting

Madrid, 15 – 17 June 2016

Document prepared by the Secretariat

Directorate General I - Human Rights and Rule of Law

 

I.          INTRODUCTION

1.         The Working Group of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE-GT) held its 31^st meeting in Madrid from 15 to 17 June 2016, at the invitation of the General Council for the Judiciary of Spain. The meeting was chaired by Mr Duro SESSA (Croatia),Vice-President of the CCJE.

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

II.       COMMUNICATION BY THE PRESIDENT, MEMBERS OF THE BUREAU AND WORKING GROUP OF THE CCJE

 

3.         Mr SESSA opened the meeting and expressed his appreciation for the invitation of the General Council for the Judiciary of Spain and its generous support for the Working Group meeting in Madrid, and thanked Mr José Francisco COBO SÀENZ, CCJE member in respect of Spain and member of the Working Group. He then gave the floor to Mr Nils ENGSTAD (Norway), President of the CCJE, to provide information on his recent missions involving presentations on the CCJE standards and activities.

4.         The President informed about his participation, on 5-6 April 2016 in Sofia, Bulgaria, in the conference on the Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of the Child^[1]. He also highlighted his participation, on 21-22 April 2016 also in Sofia, in the high-level conference on strengthening judicial independence and impartiality, and presentation, during this conference, of the Plan of Action, prepared at the initiative of the Secretary General and adopted recently by the Council of Europe^[2].

5.         The President emphasised that the CCJE would follow up in the process of implementation of the Plan of Action, and referred to the discussions during the meeting of the CCJE Bureau, particularly as regards the situation report of the CCJE on the judiciary and judges in the Council of Europe member states^[3].

6.         The President also mentioned the publication of the report prepared jointly by the Bureau of the CCJE and the Bureau of the Consultative Council of European Prosecutors (CCPE) at the initiative of the Secretary General on the “Challenges for judicial independence and impartiality in the member states of the Council of Europe”[4], and the adoption of the 2016 Report of the Secretary General entitled “State of democracy, human rights and the rule of law - a security imperative for Europe”^[5].

7.         Mr SESSA and Ms Nina BETETTO (Slovenia) also presented their activities, in particular, several expert missions, including within the framework of co-operation programmes carried out by the Council of Europe, where they presented the CCJE standards and advocated their application, as well as the standards developed by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), focusing on pilot courts.

8.         In this regard, the Secretariat informed that in 2016, the new edition of the CEPEJ Evaluation Report entitled “European judicial systems: efficiency and quality of justice” would be published, which would be in a significantly developed format, compared to the previous report of 2014, and the focus would be made on key data such as judges, court staff, organisation of the judicial systems, other key actors, courts’ performance, as well as the information technologies and their impact on the work of judges. The dynamic interactive database would be set up and made publicly accessible. It would enable, in particular, to make comparisons among member states. The users – public at large - would be able to make their own choices for studies using this database: it would be interesting tool for everybody.

9.         The Working Group members presented their expert missions where they highlighted the CCJE opinions and standards, and also discussed contributions to the process of follow-up to the above-mentioned Report of the Secretary General and the Plan of Action.

III.      PREPARATION OF THE CCJE OPINION NO. 19 ON THE ROLE OF COURT PRESIDENTS

 

10.      As a basis for discussion, the draft Opinion No. 19 (document CCJE(2016)2Prov4) was presented, prepared by Mr SESSA and the Secretariat, in which all the comments of the members of the Bureau, the Working Group and the Secretariat, submitted prior to the Working Group meeting, had been integrated. This draft was praised by the Working Group members who, however, agreed with the members of the Bureau that it should be further developed and that some key concepts and points should be re-defined.

11.      At the beginning of the discussion, the Working Group members decided to make a differentiation between general remarks, focusing on the essence, and more specific drafting comments providing precise wording.

12.      Mr Raffaele SABATO (Italy) mentioned that the draft opinion was complete, but it could have been more innovative. The CCJE could try to deal with the topic of political influences that existed in the selection of court presidents. As regards the terms of office, in the case of management oriented model, one term to be renewed only once may be considered. Issues, such as the management of court funds, evaluation of the work of court presidents, their role of monitoring consistency of judicial practices vis-à-vis the case-law, and other aspects should be examined.

13.      Mr Gerhard REISSNER (Austria) agreed that the CCJE should take a stand on key issues and mentioned that the draft was too descriptive and that it was not necessary to enumerate all models.

14.      Mr Bart van LIEROP (The Netherlands) mentioned the choice of the CCJE for court presidents who fostered and stimulated the quality of judicial work, not in a hierarchical sense but as a primus inter pares[6]. Judges wanted to have self-governance, but that went together with the accountability.

15.      Mr Orlando AFONSO (Portugal) agreed that the CCJE should promote the idea of court management through work of court presidents but not setting up a hierarchy within the court.

16.      Mr George BIRMINGHAM (Ireland) requested to be precise with the purpose of the Opinion and with what it was supposed to achieve, and to avoid being prescriptive.

17.      Ms Nina BETETTO (Slovenia) mentioned that the dilemma of being descriptive or prescriptive often came forward, and that the advantages and disadvantages of each option should be considered.

18.      The members of the Working Group went on to make references to relevant experience in their national judicial systems and the role of court presidents. After general remarks, they proceeded to consider the text of the draft Opinion in a detailed way, through each paragraph.

19.      At the end of the meeting, the Working Group decided to entrust the Bureau to proceed further and to prepare, in co-operation with the Secretariat, the final text of the draft Opinion before the plenary meeting of the CCJE on 8-10 November 2016.

IV.     OTHER ITEMS

20.      Based on the decision of the Working Group, the Bureau members, as well as Mr REISSNER and Mr van LIEROP agreed to have an ad hoc meeting of the Bureau on 2 September 2016 in Strasbourg.

APPENDIX I

AGENDA / ORDRE DU JOUR

1.    Opening of the meeting / Ouverture de la réunion

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

3.    Communication by the President, members of the CCJE and the Secretariat / Communication du Président, des membres du CCJE et du Secrétariat

4.    Preparation of the draft Opinion No. 19 on the role of court presidents / Préparation du projet de l’Avis No. 19 sur  le rôle des présidents de tribunaux

5.      Any other business / Divers

APPENDIX II

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

MEMBERS OF THE CCJE-GT / MEMBRES DU CCJE-GT

Mr Orlando AFONSO, Juge à la Cour Suprême, Almada, PORTUGAL

Mr George BIRMINGHAM, Judge, Court of Appeal, Dublin, IRELAND / IRLANDE

Mr José Francisco COBO SÀENZ, Magistrat, President of the 2nd Seccion at the Audiencia Provincial (Navarra), Pamplona, SPAIN / ESPAGNE

Mr Viktor GORODOVENKO, President of the Court of Appeal of Zaporizhzhia Region, Zaporizhzhia, UKRAINE

Mr Bart van LIEROP, Senior Vice-President of the Administrative High Court for Trade and Industry (College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven), The Hague, NETHERLANDS / PAYS-BAS

Mr Mats MELIN, President of the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court, Stockholm, SWEDEN / SUEDE

Ms Aida Rodica POPA, Judge of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, Bucharest, ROMANIA / ROUMANIE

Mr Gerhard REISSNER, President of the Austrian Judges Association, President of the District Court of Floridsdorf, Vienna, AUSTRIA / AUTRICHE

Ms Maiia ROUSSEVA, Judge of the Supreme Court of Cassation, Sofia, BULGARIA / BULGARIE

Mr Raffaele SABATO, Councillor of the Supreme Court of Cassation, Naples, ITALY / ITALIE

MEMBERS OF THE CCJE-BU /MEMBRES DU CCJE-BU

Mr Nils A. ENGSTAD, Judge, Halogaland Court of Appeal, Tromsø, NORWAY / NORVEGE (President of the CCJE/ Président du CCJE)

Mr Duro SESSA, Judge, Supreme Court, Zagreb, CROATIA / CROATIE (Vice-President of the CCJE/ Vice-Président du CCJE)

Ms Nina BETETTO, Judge, Vice-President of the Supreme Court, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA / SLOVENIE

Mr Jean-Claude WIWINIUS, Vice-Président à la Cour Supérieure de Justice, Luxembourg, LUXEMBOURG

 

SCIENTIFIC EXPERT / EXPERT CONSULTANT

Mr Marco FABRI, Senior Researcher, Research Institute on Judicial Systems, National Research Council, Bologna, ITALY / ITALIE

COUNCIL OF EUROPE’S SECRETARIAT /

SECRETARIAT DU CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE

Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law /

Direction Générale des droits de l’homme et de l’état de droit

Division for the independence and efficiency of justice /

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

E-mail: [email protected]

Mr Stéphane LEYENBERGER, Secretary of the CCJE / Secrétaire du CCJE

Tel: + 33 (0)3 90 21 44 55, E-mail: sté[email protected]

Mr Artashes MELIKYAN, Co-Secretary of the CCJE /Co-Secrétaire du CCJE

Tel: + 33 (0)3 90 21, E-mail: [email protected]

Ms Despina TRAMOUNTANI, Assistant / Assistante

Tel: +33 (0)3 90 21 62 95, E-mail: [email protected]

INTERPRETERS / INTERPRETES

Ms Cristina MATEOS FERNANDEZ-MAQUIEIRA

Ms Ana ROZPIDE

Ms Almudena VALDES DE ANCA

Mr William CLARKE   

Mr Alvaro VALLE CASANOVA