Study Day in Brussels on February 28, 2008 on the European Instruments

Added to that the Directive on Services of November 2006, and one realises how much the concerned professionals should be submerged by the width of the Communitarian texts, without counting those of the Council of Europe and the CEPEJ and without forgetting the jurisprudence of the CJEC and that more still prolific of the ECHR!

However these professionals have in fact very little knowledge of this work!

The discrepancy probably comes from the great disorder which affects the modes of communication in the matter and more still from the little interest of the Member States in promoting the knowledge of the Community and European legislative and legal topicality.

Let's face it: in many Member States, months, even years after their publications, certain texts and a number of fundamental elements of the jurisprudence of the ECHR are largely ignored by professionals (1). This is easily checked during conferences...

It should however be convened that the topics are unattractive because without much practical incidence.

Indeed, for the large majority of the law experts who live far away from the great cities where all the cross-border disputes concentrate, the field of application of the Community legislation offers a rather reduced prospect.

As regards judicial officers, it will not come as a surprise to learn that, eventually, the 1348/2000 regulation of May 29, 2000 on the service of judicial and extra-judicial documents raises an increased interest, as opposed to other instruments; in particular of the EEO whose failure seems obvious (2).

Beyond the judicial officers, it is generally observed that, except for collaborators of legal services at the ministries of justice, academics or specialised lawyers, there are few lawyers in Europe who are fully accustomed with the European policy of civil legal co-operation and of the program of freedom, security and justice.

This situation encouraged the UIHJ to activate its action plan in favour of the training of the judicial officers.

This resulted in the adoption, at the time of the European permanent council of Bucharest in May 2007, of the project of organising an information session relating to the Community legal instruments.

This session, entitled “Study Days”, is due to take place in Brussels (Belgium) on February 28.

To register for this event, which is open to all, please download and fill the attached forms.

(1) The term “professionals” must be understood on a broad sense and includes judicial officers but also magistrates, members of the high administrations, professors, lawyers, etc
(2) At the European permanent council of the UIHJ (Bucharest May 2007) only approximately 20 EEO had been registered by the judicial officers for the whole of the EU.