For ten years the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) of the Council of Europe publishes every two years a report on the efficiency and the quality of European Judicial Systems. This ever growing document - it now includes 550 pages - has now become the most comprehensive indicator on Judicial Systems in Europe. Its publication is a major event for governments, media, law professionals, citizens and businesses.
The press conference was held at the premises of the Council of Europe in Paris. It was hosted by Estelle Steiner, Press Officer at the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe was represented by Hanne Juncher, Head of its Department of Justice and Legal Cooperation, John Stacey, President of the CEPEJ, Stéphane Leyenberger, Executive Secretary of the CEPEJ, Muriel Décot, Co-Secretary of the CEPEJ, Jean Paul Jean, President of the Working Group of the CEPEJ on the Evaluation of Judicial Systems, President of Chamber at the Court of Cassation of France, and Yannick Meneceur, Special Advisor to the CEPEJ.
The UIHJ was represented by its President, Leo Netten, its General Secretary, Francoise Andrieux, and its First Secretary, Mathieu Chardon.
The press conference was broadcasted live on the website of the CEPEJ.
John Stacey felt that this fifth report was by far the best that was ever produced because data collected had become more and more accurate and the countries had become better acquainted with the exercise. The President of the CEPEJ has insisted that the report is not intended to rank countries. This is only a comparative study.
Stéphane Leyenberger went on to say that today the CEPEJ database includes nearly three million data on justice in Europe, data that are routinely collected, verified, updated and then scientifically processed for their presentation within the report.
Jean-Paul Jean presented the report by identifying trends on certain issues: budget of justice, legal aid, income (court fees), place given to users, choice of courts strategies, number of professional judges, mediation, number of lawyers and prosecutors, salaries of judges, ratios between men women in the judiciary, or clearance rate (relation between the number of new cases and the number of cases handled in a year) and disposition time (time required to process cases).
Mr Jean welcomed the presence of the UIHJ at the press conference saying it was very attentive to issues concerning enforcement. The UIHJ, who was consulted in the drawing up of Chapter 13 on execution of court decisions, warmly welcomes the CEPEJ report and acknowledges the titanic work that has been done and expects that it will once again contribute to improve judicial systems in Europe.
The report is available by clicking on the
following link:
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/cooperation/cepej/evaluation/2014/Rapport_2014_en.pdf
You will find hereafter the press release issued by the CEPEJ on this occasion.
Paris, 09.10.2014 - In a report published today, the Council of Europe's European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) draws on quantitative and qualitative data to outline the main trends observed in 46 European countries.
Among the findings to emerge from this report, the fifth of its kind since the CEPEJ was set up in 2002, are the following:
- contrasting effects of the economic crisis on the budgets of judicial systems: despite the crisis, the European trend is still upward. In half of the states, justice seems to have been shielded in budgetary terms from the effects of the crisis. The crisis has, however, had a clear impact on the development of the budgets in other states, where human resources are often affected;
- European states spend on average €60 per capita and per year on the functioning of the judicial system; this observation needs to be weighted by relating it to the respective levels of wealth in these states;
- increased participation by users in the funding of the public service of justice: the tax payer is no longer the only one to finance the system, as court users are requested to contribute too. Only France and Luxembourg provide access to court free of fees. For the majority of states, this revenue accounts for a significant resource. In some states (such as Austria), indeed, it far exceeds the operating cost of the judicial system as a whole. Such a system is part of the current trend in public management to balance, to a certain extent, the burden of the operating costs of public services between users and tax payers;
- trend towards outsourcing non-judicial tasks within courts;
- access to justice is improving in Europe: