The UIHJ attends a Training Seminar in Moscow on 11 and 12 December 2012

 

The training seminar, entitled “Fundamental issues for the Execution of Domestic Court Decisions” was organized by the Economiy, Policy and Law Research Centre in Moscow together with the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) for judicial officers and judges from the Chechen Republic. It was attended by 21 persons including Maria Oreshkina, member of the CEPEJ secretariat and three Councils of Europe experts, Dovydas Vitauskas (Lithuania), Julien Lhuillier (France) and Juraj Podkonický (Czech Republic), Treasurer of the UIHJ.

Conference participants were judges, in addition to the District Courts and City Courts, and Tamara Iskenderova, judge at the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic, together with the representatives of the Federal Bailiff Service of the Russian Federation in the Chechen Republic under the leadership of Saidmagomed Saaev, Head of Department.
 
In the first part of the seminar Dovydas Vitauskas, a former judge and lawyer who worked for ten years in Strasbourg at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), had a speech with a contribution on the topic: Enforcement of domestic court decisions in the Russian Federation, general trends and the case-law of the ECHR. In his speech he gave several examples of ECHR judgments to explain the effect of the legislation at national level and also what the most important contribution of this particular institution is.

Juraj Podkonický presented to all participants - first in Russian, then in English - the UIHJ as one of the largest organization of jurists in the world. Its origin, objectives, authorities and membership were evoked. Further he talked about the regional Euro organizations within the UIHJ and approached the current European STOBRA project. In a next section he devoted to basic circuits enforcement and statistical data, drawn from the Grand Questionnaire of the UIHJ. As part of a broad discussion he also explained the basic problem in the transition from state executions system to the liberal one and its undeniable benefits for both parts - for the state and the legal profession.

Saidmagomed Saaev showed his interest in the data relating to enforcement recovery success within Europe, to which Mr Podkonický answered that the UIHJ does not collect such data. However, from experience it is known that the recovery success rate is between 45-95% depending on many factors. Saidmagomed Saaev mentioned that the average enforceability of cases in the Chechen Republic is around 53%.
 
Juraj Podkonický then explained that the success of recovery is one of the important factors of the activities of judicial officers. Others are further national chambers´ independence from the state government, codes of ethics and rules of conduct and especially continuous training of judicial officers. Finally, the state is saving the otherwise necessary employees' salaries and their costs.

In the third part of the conference Julien Lhuillier made a presentation. Mr Lhuillier currently ends a large two-year European Commission project in Albania, where he participated in the reconstruction of its justice system. His speech was focused on the general overview of enforcement systems and procedures in Europe. Through several examples he mentioned comparative analysis of some European countries. The next day, he dedicated the second part of his speech to the Council of Europe legal instruments and practical tools for a better efficiency of enforcement services in justice.

This training seminar in Moscow was a good opportunity to present the UIHJ on international field and to deepen further the cooperation with the Council of Europe and in particular the CEPEJ.

With a limited number of participants the seminar had “intimate character”. However, precisely therefore it provided enough space beyond the expert lectures themselves. The debate which followed each lecture proved beneficial for both parties. It helped to understand the problems of participants and their legislation. Also it allowed far more detailed explanations on enforcement, its basic principles, or educational requirements, to all the participants.