The Crowning Achievement of Two Years Work
It is in 2004, that the UIHJ had won the “assistance” tender to the judicial officers of Azerbaijan set by the European Commission. During those two years, Bernard Menut, director of the project, represented the UIHJ. A team of experts made up from a majority of judicial officers coming from various countries, has worked on the project of modernising the legal institutions of Azerbaijan.
On November 29th and 30th, 2006 in Baku, the Management Committee and the experts presented their final report in the form of a summary of the operations.
This ultimate meeting, which marked to some extent the crowning achievement of the works, took on a particular solemnity.
The opening ceremony was placed under the authority of the Minister for Justice Mr. Firrat Mamedov, who was accompanied by Mr. Vlarjet H. Zahirov, Vice Minister for Justice and Mr. Husseyn Alikhanov, Director of the Department of the Judicial Officers. Many other personalities attended. One noticed the presence of the principal directors of the Ministry for Justice as well as high-ranking magistrates. Mr. Sylvain Guiaugue, first advisor, represented the Embassy of France.
In attendance was President of the UIHJ, Jacques Isnard, the President of the National Chamber of the Judicial Officers of France, Paul Rochard, and Abel Pansard, President of the French National School of procedure (ENP). Among the personalities of the professional world, Mrs Muriel Decot, and the European Union by Mr. Kaido Sirel represented the Council of Europe. A very broad panel of judicial officers coming from many countries also took part in this meeting, such as: Adrian Stoica (Romania); Mariana Obretexnova (Bulgaria), Levan Andriashvili and David Marghania (Georgia) Iraq Yelekeyev, Vice President of the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan and Marc Schmitz (Belgium).
The French delegation consisted of a college of experts, including Bernard Menut, Dominique Mahieux, Francoise Andrieux, Guy Duvelleroy and Patrick Safar and lastly was Marco Corsi (Tacis), Ilham Abbasov (Azerbaijan), Lothar Hahn and Jan Anruch (Tacis) and Wolfrang Sporrer (coordinator).
The Road to the Caucasian States
Beyond the reports presented by the various speakers, this international conference was marked by the richness of the communications showing the considerable extent of the work achieved by the committee. Moreover, the conclusions indisputably made it possible to open ways for the future.
Indeed, the road to the Caucasian States and Asia seems open from now on to the UIHJ. Azerbaijan, but also Georgia and also Kazakhstan are ready, on different levels, to consider the prospects for the creation of a body of liberal professionals in charge of the enforcement in their respective country.
The observers were surprised by the wide knowledge of the liberal judicial officer shown by certain speakers, in particular, those coming from Azerbaijan, but also by those of Kazakhstan where the principle itself seems politically admitted.
All these States are equipped with a legal status based on the code “Napoleon” (civil code) which simplifies the understanding of the law and facilitates communication. Moreover, the Eastern experts are numerous who have more or less recently had training courses or study visits abroad, especially in France.
The Passage Towards the Liberal Judicial Officer
Everyone in Baku agreed - The passage of the civil servant enforcement agent towards the liberal judicial officer appears inescapable. But the remaining question - that of knowing when. Some problems of institutional and administrative nature always remain.
If one wants to consider that the judicial officer, who is from now on a community reality (apart from Scandinavia, Italy, Austria and Malta) that still seeks to extend. It is a reality to state that the prospects offered by the new areas of the old territories of the Soviet Union prove favourable with the prospective actions.
In this respect, it is undeniable that Azerbaijan constitutes a main platform to promote our profession to the East.
The quasi-legendary welcome of our Azeri friends is not usurped and the project proposed by Mr. Mamedov, Minister for Justice, relating to training with the ENP and President Pansard, as well as the implementation of a liberal profession with a pre-requisite of an international seminar in the coming months, constitutes the bursting testimony of the will to consolidate even more the strong relations tied at the time of this international conference.
