It was at the end of the meeting that President Stawa made this announcement, an exceptional tribute from the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice of the Council of Europe (CEPEJ) to President Menut, who passed away in March 2015, a tribute to the man and his life at the service of the profession of judicial officer.
The UIHJ was represented by its President, Françoise Andrieux, and its Secretary General, Mathieu Chardon. Both were particularly touched by this attention, personally and on behalf of all the member countries of the UIHJ and of those who knew him and were close to him. The meeting was opened by Georg Stawa in the presence of Hanne Juncher, Head of the Justice Department and Legal Cooperation of the Council of Europe. On the topic of recent information Georg Stawa mentioned his presence during the 22nd international congress of judicial officers held in Madrid in June 2015. He said he was very pleased with the collaboration with the UIHJ and his participation in the event.
Several countries reported on recent developments in the judicial field in the Member States of the Council of Europe. Regarding the execution of court decisions and the profession of judicial officer, the Russian Federation is working on a project of an Enforcement Court and the standardisation of enforcement proceedings within a single piece of legislation to strengthen the protection of citizens and businesses to more efficient justice. The representative of Serbia discussed the programme on training of judicial officers in which participates Jos Uitdehaag, secretary of the board of the UIHJ.
An account of the cooperation programmes between countries and the CEPEJ was given. This concerns in particular:
- The Programme funded by the Norway Grant: “Improving the quality and efficiency of the judiciary system through the development of infrastructures and a better management within the state of Croatia”;
- The Joint Programme “Support to the efficiency of justice (SEJ)” with the European Union for Albania;
- The Joint Programme with the European Union for the efficiency of justice in Azerbaijan, Moldova and Ukraine;
- The Programme: “Developing mediation practices in civil disputes in Turkey”, financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)
- Neighbouring policy: Joint Programme with the European Union for Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan (South Programme).
Regarding the South Programme, Jacques Bühler (Switzerland) said that cooperation with Morocco would continue. He thanked the UIHJ for its participation on aspects relating to the service of documents. For Tunisia, Muriel Iseli, administrator at the CEPEJ, referred to the two activities held there in March and June 2015. For Jordan, Muriel Iseli said the support programme to the Jordanian authorities ended on 19 May 2015. She recalled that an analysis of the enforcement of judgments was conducted in late 2014. She thanked the experts, including UIHJ's, who participated in the expertise on the enforcement of court decisions.
One of the key item on the agenda of the meeting was the evaluation of European judicial systems. Jean-Paul Jean, President of the Working Group of the CEPEJ on the evaluation of European judicial systems (CEPEJ-GT-EVAL), presented successively the implementation of the 2014 - 2016 evaluation cycle, the cooperation with the European Union within the framework of the “Justice Scoreboard”, and the implementation of the pilot peer evaluation co-operation process. With regard to this last item, Christel Schurrer, administrator at the CEPEJ, gave a report of the peer evaluation in Lithuania in May 2015, in which Mathieu Chardon participated.
Françoise Paychère, chairman of the CEPEJ Working Group on quality of justice (CEPEJ-GT-QUAL), mentioned the current drafting of a good practice guide on enforcement of court decisions. This mission was entrusted to Guillaume Payan, who was appointed recently Director of the Legal Unit of the UIHJ.
Amongst other items on the agenda was the work of the Saturn Centre for judicial time management. Its president, Jacques Bühler, discussed three themes:
- Collection CEPEJ's key terms definitions;
- Updating the study on the length of procedures in appeal jurisdictions (Velicogna Report);
- Coaching programmes on SATURN tools.
During the meeting, Mathieu Chardon thanked the CEPEJ for participating at the highest level in the international congress of judicial officers in Madrid in June 2015, since the CEPEJ was represented by its current president, Georg Stawa, and its former president, John Stacey. Françoise Andrieux presented the Global Code of Enforcement, which was officially presented during the Madrid congress. She recalled that the work was entrusted to the twelve professors of the Scientific Council of the UIHJ, from four continents. The Global Code of Enforcement is based on legal provisions of countries, case law, and the CEPEJ guidelines, to extract common denominators and principles. She reported on the enthusiastic welcome that received the Global Code of Enforcement during the congress. "This tool helps to ensure efficiency and quality of enforcement systems. It is a tool for harmonisation. The Madrid Congress is the birthplace of the Global Code of Enforcement and organisations have asked us to implement it "she said. A copy of the Global Code of Enforcement was given to each participant.
Georg Stawa said he was very pleased with the cooperation with the UIHJ. "We are grateful that the Guidelines on Enforcement can go global through the Global Code of Enforcement" he continued before declaring to dedicate the 25th CEPEJ plenary meeting to the memory of Bernard Menut, long-time collaborator of the CEPEJ.
For the new president of the UIHJ, Françoise Andrieux, this CEPEJ 25th plenary meeting was a première. She was warmly welcomed by the board of the CEPEJ, its secretariat, as well as the representatives of member states and the observer members.
The UIHJ is very pleased, thanks the CEPEJ for the excellent organisation of the meeting and is more than ever motivated to continue cooperation to ensure together an always better efficiency of justice.
Link to the meeting report by the CEPEJ of its 25th plenary meeting.
https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?Ref=CEPEJ%282015%298&Language=lanEnglish&Ver=original&Site=COE&BackColorInternet=DBDCF2&BackColorIntranet=FDC864&BackColorLogged=FDC864
