Working Out Quality Standards on Enforcement
The UIHJ is a permanent observer member of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) of the Council of Europe. For this reason the UIHJ takes part twice a year in its plenary meetings. Within the framework of the activities of the CEPEJ, a study was carried out at the end of 2007 on enforcement court decisions in Europe by a team made up of researchers of the Nancy University (France) and the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law. This remarkable study was examined by the working group of the CEPEJ on the evaluation of justice (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL) and was presented on December 22nd, 2007 at the 10th full session of the CEPEJ. It is available hereafter while clicking on the link (English version):
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/cooperation/cepej/series/Etudes8Execution_en.pdf. It includes in an appendix proposals for guidelines to improve the implementation of existing recommendations regarding the execution of court decisions in Europe, for submission to the CEPEJ.
In the continuity of this study, it was decided to create a working group on execution (CEPEJ-GT-EXE). This group is instructed to enable a better implementation of the relevant standards of the Council of Europe regarding execution of court decisions in civil, commercial and administrative matters at national level. In order to fulfill its tasks, the CEPEJ-GT-EXE must in particular:
- Assess the impact in the states of the existing relevant instruments of the Council of Europe on execution or court decisions at national level;
- Draft, if appropriate, guidelines aimed to ensure an effective implementation of the existing standards of the Council of Europe;
- Draft, if appropriate, quality standards on execution in order to improve the accessibility of execution systems and the efficiency of execution services.
The CEPEJ-GT-EXE consists of six experts appointed by the bureau of the CEPEJ: Andrei Abramov (Russian Federation), Karl-Heinz Brunner (Germany), Fokion Georgakopoulos (Greece), Anna Lovrinov (Croatia), Claire Notari (Monaco), and John Marston (United Kingdom). It associated the expertise of the UIHJ, in the person of its 1st vice-president, Leo Netten, and of its 1st secretary, Mathieu Chardon.
The UIHJ within the Working Group
The first meeting of the CEPEJ-GT-EXE was held at the seat of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, on January 29th and 30th 2009. John Stacey, vice-president of the CEPEJ, and Georg Stawa (Austria) also took part in this meeting. The secretariat of the meeting was expertly ensured by Stéphane Leyenberger, secretary of the CEPEJ, and Muriel Decot, co- secretary. Pim Albers, special adviser to the Secretariat of the CEPEJ also intervened, in particular within the framework of a presentation on European and global experiences with (court) quality measures and systems.
After having adopted the agenda, the six experts appointed John Marston as chairman of the working group. Then the group started to discuss the tasks contained in the terms of reference of the CEPEJ-GT-EXE with a view of preparing a working plan. The group examined the many documents which the CEPEJ placed at its disposal, like the study of the University of Nancy, the various recommendations of the CEPEJ (in particular Rec (2003) 17 of September 9th, 2003 on enforcement), the report on the European legal systems (edition 2008), or the checklists for promoting the quality of justice and the courts.
In the light of these documents, it was decided to propose concrete and practical guidelines relating to enforcement. A scheme of work including ten points was distributed between the participants. These points cover all aspects relating to enforcement of the legal decisions: context of enforcement/Access to justice, notices to parties, Enforceable title, parties involved in the enforcement procedure, enforcement agents, information about debtors assets, processes and standards, cost of enforcement, outcomes and timelines, and regulation.
A first draft must be completed for March 1st, 2009. This draft will constitute the working base for the group. Its mission will end in October 2009, and it will present its final report during the plenary meeting of the CEPEJ in December 2009.
It seems particularly convenient that the UIJH takes part in this working group which will provide the bases of future European standards as regards enforcement of legal decisions.
Link to the website of the CEPEJ:
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/cooperation/cepej/default_EN.asp? 
