18th Meeting of the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL
In its capacity as observer member, the UIHJ attended on 1 and 2 October 2015 at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg the 18th meeting of the Working Group on Quality of Justice of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice
The Working Group on quality of justice (CEPEJ-GT-QUAL) is instructed to develop means of analyse and evaluation of the work done inside the courts with a view to improving, in the member states, quality of the public service delivered by the justice system, in particular vis-à-vis the expectations of the justice practitioners and the users, according to criteria of performance and efficiency meeting a large consensus.
In order to fulfil its tasks, the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL must in particular, while observing the principle of independence of judges:
• collect necessary information on evaluation systems of the quality of judicial work existing in the member states;
• improve tools, indicators and means for measuring the quality of judicial work;
• draft concrete solutions for the policy makers and for the courts, allowing to remedy dysfunctions in the judicial activity and balance the obligations of the work of judges and its workload with the obligation to provide a justice of quality for the users.
(Source: CEPEJ : http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/cooperation/cepej/quality/default_EN.asp? )
The CEPEJ-GT-QUAL is chaired by François Paychère (Switzerland) and includes Joao Arsenio de Oliveira (Portugal), Fabio Bartolomeo (Italy), Anke Eilers (Germany), Nikolina Miskovic (Croatia), and Ioannis Symeonidis (Greece).
The meeting was chaired by François Paychère, with Stéphane Leyenberger, Executive Secretary of the CEPEJ, and Clementina Barbaro, Secretary of the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL.
Scientific experts of the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL Gilles Accomando (France), Francesco de Santis (Italy), Harold Epineuse (France), Guillaume Payan (France), Yinka Tempelman (Netherlands), also participated in the meeting. Were also in attendance representatives of the European Court of Human Rights, the European Commission, the Council of European Bar, the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary, the European Union of Rechtspfleger and Court Clerks, and two invited countries, Moldova and Tunisia.
The UIHJ was represented by its Secretary General, Mathieu Chardon.
For two days, participants addressed all the topics specified in the agenda:
• How to drive changes towards e-justice? Preparation of guidelines;
• Enforcement of court decisions;
• Protection of fair trial, miscarriages of justice and implementation of effective domestic remedies;
• Presentations on managing knowledge in the judiciary and quality indicators in four European countries (Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and Switzerland) by two PhD candidate and researcher at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands), Sandra Taal and Mirjam Westenberg;
• Indicators for measuring the quality of judicial services;
• Access of women to justice.
Regarding enforcement of court decisions, Guillaume Payan, lecturer at the University of Toulon (France), Director of the Legal Unit of the UIHJ, presented the Draft Guide on good practices related to the Guidelines for a better implementation of the Council of Europe's recommendation on enforcement that he was instructed by the CEPEJ to prepare.
This guide focuses on the four themes identified during the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL 17th meeting of 16 and 17 April 2015 (see the article on our website: http://www.uihj.com/en/17th-meeting-of-the-cepej-gt-qual-in-paris_2164289.html ):
1. Control of the organisation of the enforcement process by enforcement agents;
2. Proper understanding of the enforcement process by the parties;
3. The quality of enforcement procedures and a review of the enforcement process;
4. A glossary of legal terms relating to enforcement.
Very fruitful discussions and concrete proposals followed. The final version of the Guide on good practices will be presented during the next plenary meeting of the CEPEJ to be held in Strasbourg on 10 and 11 December 2015, in view of its adoption.
Through this Guide on good practices, the CEPEJ will provide member countries of the Council of Europe - and others - new and concrete practical tools that will allow them to explore new tracks as regards efficiency of enforcement, in full compliance with the principles of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.
The UIHJ looks forward to the creation of this new instrument.
