Estonia Accommodates in Tallinn the Spring Permanent Council of the UIHJ

A Destiny More European With Each Passing Day

Like each year, in accordance with its statutes, the European and American members of the UIHJ meet during a permanent council which takes place in one of the European capitals. It is the occasion for each one to meet, exchange and give a progress report on the last actions and those to come. For two years, the permanent council has been also the occasion to organize workshops on the project of the multi-tasking judicial officer.

The opening ceremony was placed under the high ranking authority of the ministry for the justice of Estonia, represented by Margus Sarappu, general secretary of the Minister for justice, Rein lang.

Elin Vilippus, former president of the national Chamber of the judicial officers of Estonia, currently in charge of international affairs, welcomed the whole of the delegations in Estonia and in Tallinn, its capital. She declared herself very honoured for her country to accommodate this permanent council and thanked the UIHJ.

In his welcome short speech, Jacques Isnard, president of the UIHJ, described as historical the fact that the European Council of 2008 is held in Estonia, less than twenty years after this country recovered the democracy, integrated the European Union and introduced the occupation of judicial officer. The president of the UIHJ evoked three axes in his intervention: European future, multi-tasking, and training of judicial officers. On the first topic, he declared that “our destiny becomes each passing day more European and no one among you can involve in reforms without looking towards Brussels”. He carried on with the harmonization of the profession through its statute and activities, while fustigating the socialization of the law, “hypocrisy of the politico-legal language which consists in proclaiming more legal security while avoiding its implementation by reducing the field of distraint, by privileging the softening of the procedures, or by strictly limiting access to information on debtors' asset to the judicial officers”.

Within the framework of multi-tasking, Jacques Isnard recalled that, at the time of the European permanent council of the UIHJ in Lisbon in 2005, the UIHJ asserted for the judicial officers the monopoly of enforcement, including those involving bankruptcy and selling of real estates, the post-legal mediation as an element of enforcement procedures and the installation of a common mode of search of information on debtors' assets. In this respect, he invited the presidents of the delegations of the UIHJ to constitute in each country a commission charged at national level to work on multi-tasking and to include it in the programs of EuroNord, EuroMediterranea, EuroDanube and EuroScandinavia.

On the topic of training, the president of the UIHJ reaffirmed his engagement, consolidated by the future creation of the International Research, Training and Prospetive Center. Lastly, Jacques Isnard addressed his most cordial thanks to the Chamber of the judicial officers of Estonia and to its president, Mati Kadak, and to Elin Vilippus. “It is a true exploit to organize, at the conclusion of such a short existence of the profession, a so wide event” he concluded.

A Bright Future For The Profession

In echo with these words, Margus Sarappu recalled that if the history of judicial officers in Estonia is short, it nonetheless already acquired an experience. Evoking the creation of a body of liberal judicial officers in 2001, he declared that the budget of the State is not requested any more and that “the change in the profession is generally regarded as a success”. M.Sarappu recognized that the profession is difficult but, quoting Utopia, the work of English essayist Thomas More (1478-1535), he ended his speech by indicating that, according to this author, even in an utopian society, one needed judges, and thus judicial officers, which was to ensure a bright future the profession.

Then, the Republic of Belarus was honoured by its admission ceremony as an observer member of the UIHJ. The candidature was supported by Roger Dujardin, vice-president of the UIHJ. Our fellow-member remembered his visit in Minsk in October 2007 within the framework of the 85th birthday of the Supreme Economic Court of Belarus. Then, Doctor Victor Kamenkov, President of the Supreme Economic Court of Belarus, presented his country bordered by the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, and from which the 10 million inhabitants present a multicultural identity. Doctor Kamenkov indicated that “the principle of equality in front of the law is achieved in the process of enforcement” and that “judicial officers must call upon all the available arsenal to recover debts”.

For the moment, he specified, judicial officers are not self-managed but belong to the Republican Union of Lawyers of which he is in charge. He added that he hoped to be able to set up a distinct organization and concluded his speech by indicating that in July 2008, a demonstration was going to be organized in Minsk to celebrate the ten years of the occupation of judicial officer in Belarus. He invited any interested person to take part in it. At the conclusion of this talk, a charter of co-operation was signed between the UIHJ and Belarus.

To Improve The Status Of Auxiliary Of Justice

Then Jacques Isnard gave an account of the state of the profession in Europe and America since the November 2007 permanent council in Paris. He told that, to his mind, except for the “old countries”, after the period which was that of the installation of the profession, times are now for reforms, as in Poland or Romania. According to the president of the UIHJ, the country which is the most advanced is Hungary where our fellow-members have practically all the multi-tasking activities. He indicated that, to escape from the sole triptych service of documents/enforcement/debt collecting, it was necessary to reinforce the status of auxiliary of justice of the judicial officer as well as the training aspect.

In this respect, he presented the Institute of international judicial private law and enforcement law (IDJPEX), which ambition is to contain training and the academic fields. One of its branches is the International Training Council and the scientific Council which must be installed on June 20th, 2008 in Paris and which brings together professors of universities of four continents. President Isnard also evoked Juris-Union, a publication intended to publish scientific work on the profession, and the world library of the UIHJ.

Francis Guépin, member of the UIHJ, mentioned the UIHJ EuroMed meeting which was held in Cyprus in May 2008. He recalled that there exist two types of professionals in this Member State of the European Union: civil servant enforcement agents and professional liberals who are specialized in the service of documents. He indicated that at the conclusion of the meeting, seven recommendations were adopted unanimously.

Francis Guépin qualified this 5th session of EuroMed of great success on the scientific level and underlined the exceptional reception of the Cypriot fellow-members, and the active assistance of the national chamber of the judicial officers of Greece in the preparation of this conference.

UIHJ Euro

Michal Redelbach, vice-president of the Council of the Polish judicial officers and secretary of UIHJ EuroDanube, spoke about the UIHJ EuroNord meeting in Sopot in September 2007 and announced that the next meeting would be on October 30th and 31st in Hungary.

Concerning UIHJ EuroNord, Frans van der Meer, president of the Royal Association of the judicial officers of the Netherlands, substituting Jos Uitdehaag, secretary of EuroNord, specified that the charter was signed except for England and Wales.
Nicola Hesslén, permanent secretary of the UIHJ for the Scandinavian countries, then presented her report. Concerning Denmark, the Danes reorganized their jurisdictions. The new reform which is in force since January 2007 reduced the number of the courts from 85 to 22 for all the country. In Norway, the association of the Norwegian judicial officers (Norges Lensmann- og Politilederlag) expressed again its wish to join the UIHJ. A new law is in force to make enforcement procedures simpler and more effective, and which also gives a more important place to mediation.

In Finland, the number of the public services of forced enforcement was reduced from 51 to 22. The computerized data processing was still improved. In Iceland, there is still no contact. The judicial officers of this country did not attend the last Stockholm seminar, regretted our colleague. Lastly, in Sweden, the public service of forced enforcement was reorganized with for objective an independence towards the Treasury, which represents a great change for the country. Lastly, Nikola Hesslén evoked the Scandinavian seminar which was held in September 2007 in Stockholm, with the participation of the UIHJ and its president, Jacques Isnard. The next Scandinavian seminar will be organized in 2009 in Denmark.

David Walker, member of the board of the UIHJ, gave a report of the activities for the United Kingdom. In Northern Ireland, the political situation is stabilized. The judicial officers are civil servants and of the proposals are under study to make the system more effective. In England and Wales, David Walker regrets the departure of Bailiffs of the UIHJ, which is all the more regrettable as this decision comes against new laws which certainly will increase the level of the profession.

On the opposite, High Court Enforcement Officers still are very involved in the UIHJ. In Scotland, the situation was considered to be rather positive by our colleague. He recalled that there had been some discussion about changing the name of Messenger-At-Arms but that the current government, which keeps a pragmatic approach, judged that it was not necessary to change “something which was not broken”. On the other hand, in Ireland, there are still no more contacts.

A Bringing Together With The NSA

For the United States, Sue Collins recalled that she was introduced last year near the National Sheriffs Association by his fellow-member Paul Vatreau. The NSA invited her for the end of June in Indianapolis to take part in their conference. Sue Collins will go there accompanied by Leo Netten, 1st vice-president and of Fred Blum. She declared herself very happy with the idea that the two organizations could work together. Jacques Isnard also declared himself very happy with this news and warmly congratulated our colleague. Leo Netten indicated that the NSA is a very large organization which counts 6000 members and has a direct contact with the government of the United States.

In Germany, Walter Gietmann, president of the Association of Gerichtsvollzieher, described the situation in his country as very difficult, with a Federal state and 16 regional Land, 16 Parliaments, 16 regional governments, 16 regional Ministers for justice and a federal Minister for justice. It is thus necessary to deal with 17 Ministers for justice! If the majority of the ministers of justice of the Land recognized the interest of a liberal and independent profession, it is not the case of the current federal Minister for justice.

For want of anything better, “we try to obtain a reinforcement of our competences within the framework of our current statute” indicated Mr. Gietmann. Reforms are also in hand, in particular on the declaration of assets which will allow to the judicial officers to obtain direct information on debtors' assets.

In Austria, Marc Schmitz, quaestor of the Committee of the UIHJ, recalled that a new association of Gerichtsvollzieher was created and gathers today approximately 30 fellow-members, that is to say approximately 10% of the judicial officers. But no project is planned for a liberalization of the profession.

In Italy, Andrea Mascioli, member of the Association of Europeans Ufficiale Giudiziari, evoked the projections of its oganisation to promote the liberal profession in Italy and indicated that several favorable articles are been published in the press on this subject.

Guy Duvelleroy, president of the national Chamber of the judicial officers of France, announced that in France the judicial officers were going to have direct access to information near the various administrations, that the conclusive force of statements of facts was going to be reinforced and that the on-going training of judicial officers was going to become mandatory.

In Spain, Juan Carlos Esteves, president of the Council of Procuradores noted a period of halt in the negotiations with the government on the creation of a body of judicial officer because of a change of government.

Iraq Yelekeev, vice chairman of the legal Administration the Supreme court of Kazakhstan, thanked the UIHJ for its invitation. He indicated that his country organizes a conference in October 2008 in Almati and invited each one has to take part in it. “We have many opponents to the liberalization of judicial officers. Your participation would help to show that the private judicial officer is more efficient” he declared. Leo Netten thanked Mr. Yelekeev and underlined how much Kazakhstan was influent within the countries of the Community of independent States (CEI).

Training in the Middle of the Actions of the UIHJ

On the topic of training, Francis Guépin summarized the training day that was held in Brussels on February 28th, 2008. “We started with the fact that many colleagues are ignorant of the European instruments. The board of the UIHJ made the bet to gather for a day professionals from different horizons to ensure an on-going and practical training on European regulations, and in particular Regulation 1348. Success exceeded all our hopes. 300 fellow-members showed a very particular assiduity. Even countries unconcerned by the scientific aspect of the conference came (Thailand and Algeria)” he indicated. Then he announced that the UIHJ had decided to renew this experiment within the framework of the IDJPEX. Leo Netten added that training is “in the middle of the actions of the UIHJ since 1996”.

Abel Pansard, former president of the National school of procedure of Paris (ENP) and now in charge of the International Training Council, evoked the international destiny of the school which he chaired for many years. “the ENP exists since 1960 and organizes the training of employees and future judicial officers. Little by little an international department was created. Without the assistance of the UIHJ and the knowledge of the world of the UIHJ we could not have succeeded. On the basis of all these actions, we took part in the creation of Ufohja in Africa. There is also a demand for Europe. The International Training Counsel (CIF) corresponds meets the demands of all European fellow-members. It will be necessary that the all European countries work on common topics. It is for the ENP of Paris to do the work. It has the structures and the people. The responsibility for this CIF was entrusted to me by the UIHJ and the ENP. The profession must be exerted by qualified and effective professionals. There is also a training of trainers course. Professional training is not taught in the universities. It is a method which is very different, very practical and very conceptual. One learns how to communicate with the students in a professional way”.

In this respect, during the Permanent Council, a training of trainers session was held for our Estonian colleagues by Patrick Safar, Vice-President of the ENP of Paris.

16 000 Visits Per month For the Website of the UIHJ

In the field of the communication, the new leaflets on UIHJ-Europe and IDJPEX were presented. Mathieu Chardon, first secretary of the UIHJ indicated that the rate of frequentation of the website of the UIHJ is in constant progression with more than 16 000 visits per month. He also presented the work of the Committee of the UIHJ for the account of Jos Uitdehaag, first quaestor, prevented. In particular, he invited the fellow-members to help to fill the world bibliography which is in the course of constitution. He also presented the questionnaire on the profession which can be consulted on the Extranet site of the UIHJ (For the UIHJ Club Members only) and which constitutes a projection without precedent in the quantified knowledge of the profession at world level since 39 States currently answered this questionnaire.

Francoise Andrieux presented the state of work of the next international congress of the UIHJ in Marseilles in September 2009, in her capacity as general reporter. The work will concern the idea of a new classification of goods, the quality of judicial officers as an essential element of the Rule of law and the harmonization of the profession on the world plan.

Concerning markets, Bernard Menut, secretary of the board of the UIHJ, underlined the interests for the UIHJ, in term of influence and financing. He indicated that projects are in hand in Bulgaria, Fyrom and also in Kosovo, Serbia, Ukraine, as well as like in Tunisia, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

At the conclusion of the work, closed by Leo Netten in the absence of Jacques Isnard, which went to Brussels at the request of the European commission to take part in a meeting on the creation of the Forum Justice network, a traditional dinner was offered by our Estonian fellow-members. During this splendid evening, convivial and cordial, Leo Netten thanked Mati Kadak, president of the judicial officers of Estonia and Elin Vilippus, for their reception and their exemplary organization of this great permanent council of the UIHJ.