27th Meeting of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL in Paris

One of the tasks of the working group of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) of the Council of Europe (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL) is to prepare reports on judicial systems, the fifth of which was published in October 2014. The UIHJ recently joined this working group. It attended its 27th meeting in that capacity and was represented by its first secretary, Mathieu Chardon.

The meeting was chaired by Jean-Paul Jean, President of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL. In addition to members of the working group, were in attendance for the CEPEJ, Georg Stawa, President, Muriel Décot, Co-Secretary, Christel Schurrer, Administrator Yannick Menneceur, Special Advisor to the Secretariat and Lidija Naumovska, Statistician, Administrator. Were also present CEPEJ scientist experts and representatives of the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the European Union of Court Clerks and Rechtspfleger (EUR) and the European Expertise & Expert Institute (EEEI).

The agenda was particularly dense. Among the topics, the participants focused on the launch of the 2014-2016 evaluation cycle of judicial systems. The evaluation grid that serves as basis for the report was discussed. Many proposals were made, including by the UIHJ as regards Chapter 13 of the report relating to the execution of court decisions. The issue of e-Justice has also been widely discussed, with a specific questionnaire on the use of IT in courts.
 
Another of the discussed issues was the study for the European Commission on the functioning of judicial systems in the Member States of the European Union (Justice Scoreboard).

The discussions were very rich and constructive in the usual CEPEJ atmosphere: dialogue, exchanges, search for efficiency and consensus.