Technical and pedagogical aspects
The mission consisted of Mr. Andrzej Kryze, Deputy Minister for Justice, Mr. Karal Dalek, director of the Department of the Legal Organization, Tomasz Jasklowski, assistant director of the Department of the Legal Organization and Mrs Urszula Wieczorek, head of division of the notaries and the judicial officers at the Ministry of Justice of Poland.
The Polish delegation showed a particular interest in the functioning of the Guarantee Fund, the National School of procedure (ENP) and in the visit of a Parisian Judicial officer's office.
The two mechanisms, civil liability and professional liability, presented by the president of the Guarantee Fund (Guy Duvelleroy) and its director (Marion Thibaud) particularly allured the Polish interlocutors who did not hide their interest in this service which could be transposed to Poland.
The ENP, with its president, Abel Pansard, and its director, Sophie Gaublomme, was at the centre of the discussions relating to the many questions relating to training.
The technical aspects, as well as the pedagogical field relating on the one hand to the training of staff, trainees, and even judicial officers, and on the other hand of the trainers, managed to catch all the attention of the experts.
Lastly, the visit of the office of our fellow member Patrice Nocquet in Paris was described as “very enriching” in terms of knowledge in particular through the practical illustrations and the technical demonstrations developed by Mr Nocquet.
A strong proximity between the French and Polish statuses
Poland is the country which gathers, after France, the largest number of judicial officers in Europe (640).
The profession was created in 1994 and its statute was renovated in 1997. The government undertook a great reform of the legal system which concerns, inter alia, the professions of the law and more particularly the judicial officers whose manpower, competence (project of extension to a national competence), discipline, tariff, access to the profession and training, are at the center of the reform.
The bill of reforms was voted by the deputies. It is today under examination at the Senate and the Polish authorities would sincerely hope to study the French system, before being determined on certain numbers of points among those appearing in the project.
The program of the ministerial mission was thus conceived to make it possible to approach a large series of topics such as:
- Competence ratione loci
- Competition and the number of judicial officers
- Discipline, ethics, control of offices
- Conditions of access to the profession, and the appointment of the judicial officers
- Activities, tariffs and modes of remunerations, etc.
The comparative study revealed a strong proximity between the French and Polish statuses, this last, it is appropriate to specify, having at the time of its creation in the beginning of the Nineties been strongly inspired by the system in force in France and Belgium.
In this respect, President Jacques Isnard was to point out that since 1992, under the authority of President Baudouin Gielen, a working group of the UIHJ had been set up, and had strongly contributed, with the Polish authorities and the pioneers of the liberal profession in Poland - among whom appeared former President Dariusz Potkanski - to the development of the Polish status.
It is necessary to pay homage to all those who animated the debates during the two days: presidents Jacques Bertaux and Francis Guépin, Thierry Guinot, Francoise Andrieux, René Duperray, Patrick Safar and Guy Bricard, on the subjects as varied as those which were approached within the framework of the program, like on the great debate around insolvency or the harmful role of the debt collecting agencies.
The role of the Polish judicial officers in the European Union
At the end of the visit, Mr. Krize was to announce the will of the government of his country to promote four measures:
- The creation of a training school of the judicial officers
- The introduction of a Guarantee Fund
- The institutionalization of amicable debt collecting to the profit of the judicial officers
- The prohibition of the debt collecting agencies.
The implementation of such a program requiring a more deepened study, it seems it was wished that a group of experts continue the work started by this first exploring mission.
In his ending short speech, Paul Rochard, President of the French National Chamber of Judicial Officers asserted the need for promoting such meetings, in conformity with the wishes of the French judicial officers, strongly in favor of supporting the dialog between all the European judicial officers and their official authorities.
The French Chamber, added President Paul Rochard, “is always there to open its doors to the foreign delegations, our buildings being the house of all the judicial officers”.
Lastly, Jacques Isnard, by pointing out the solid bonds which link the UIHJ in Poland since the beginning of the nineties, insisted on the importance of the role of the Polish judicial officers in the EU, those representing the second power after France. The president of the international Union called the Minister, Mr. Kryze, to support the actions of the UIHJ in favor of the installation of a European judicial officer and also to support his steps in favor of the promotion of a multi-field judicial officer, particularly in the amicable and judicial recovery of debts with, for corollary, the eradication of the debt collecting agencies. All this, was to conclude president Isnard, must “be carried out in close cooperation with our Polish fellow-members who will have a very attentive ear to the results of this visit.”
To this end, the National Chamber of the judicial officers of Poland will organize its next congress in Warsaw on 13 and 14 June 2007.
