Two Countries and NSA Join the UIHJ during the Permanent Council in Paris

48 Delegations

The traditional permanent council of the UIHJ joined together more than 45 delegations coming from all over the world from November 25th to 28th 2008 in Paris. The permanent council is the most important body of the UIHJ after the international congress which is held every three years.

In preamble to the event, several meetings proceeded the day before at the head office of the UIHJ: management board of the Training Unit of African judicial officers (Ufohja), secretaries of the UIHJ-Euros (UIHJ-EuroMed, UIHJ-EuroNord, UIHJ EuroDanube and UIHJ-EuroScandinavia), Cadat, as well as works on multi-field activities (mediation, public auctions, activities and new technologies).
On November 27th, the delegations were accommodated by their host, Guy Duvelleroy, President of the National Chamber of the judicial officers of France (CNHJ). The French president noted the presence of 48 delegations and more than 150 participants, which sets a new record. He welcomed all the participants, as well as the two new countries and the National Sheriffs' Association which would join the rows of the UIHJ during the permanent council.

In his welcome speech, Jacques Isnard has, in his turn, welcomed the whole of the delegations and the representatives of the ministry of justice of France, invited. He thanked once again the CNHJ for its welcome and the unfailing support which it testifies towards the UIHJ. The president of the UIHJ did not fail to note that the world-wide crisis affects all the economies. “By a perhaps simplistic deduction one comes to wonder whether, in the middle of the problem, appears the question of safety”, he declares, by specifying that the judicial officer is an “active element of the process of framing of any mode of legal security”. This reflection leads him to wonder under which conditions legal decisions in cross-border matter are carried out. He evoked the disparity of statutes of enforcement professionals, in particular within the European Union, in spite of the efforts shown by the States and the actions of the UIHJ towards the Former Soviet States. On the other hand, in Africa, in only ten years, the judicial officers “showed a rare efficiency, since the movement of standardization undertaken in Dakar in 1996 was translated ten years afterwards by a project of uniform statute presented by the profession”. In Europe, notes the president, things change. The European Union has set up the Forum justice commission. The European commission for the efficiency of justice (CEPEJ) of the Council of Europe has created a working group on enforcement (CEPEJ-GT-EXE) which should include the UIHJ. And the Hague Conference on private international law reconsiders today the project, launched in the middle of the Nineties, of a convention on enforcement. “More and more voices rise in favor of the recognition of a true enforcement law, while evoking, among the favorable arguments, the existence of a body of professionals of enforcement ” estimates Jacques Isnard. It is about a profession of enforcement centered on “the existence of the monopoly of enforcement and all the enforcement, being on movable, immovable, public auctions or State owed debts”. This great profession of enforcement will have to gather around itself other actors exerting scattered activities within peripheral and minority corporations. It will be able to comprise specialized branches if needed, but the major element will remain enforcement. The idea to develop the occupation of judicial officer by directing the objectives towards widened activities penetrates gradually in the spirit of the judicial officers since the program known as of “multi-field activities” was deployed. This should allow judicial officers to be familiarized with the prospects of extending their traditional perimeter of activities with additional new functions: statements of facts and reports, auctions, mediation... “Tomorrow, it seems inescapable, in the long term in the Community systems of Europe, Africa, etc, that there will only remain the three emergent professions of the triptych judges/lawyer/judicial officer”, predicted the president of the UIHJ. The way will be long and will involve the taking into account of many contingencies, to start with that of training. In this respect, the president of the UIHJ stated to invest “much hope on the action of the international Training Center of judicial officers placed under the direction of who is undoubtedly our best specialist as regards training, Abel Pansard”.

78 Events

Then, president Isnard greeted the new presidents or heads of delegations:

Then, Mathieu Chardon, 1st secretary of the UIHJ, presented a report of the activities of the UIHJ in 2008. Our fellow-member pointed out that, since November 2007, four new countries joined the UIHJ: Chile, Kazakhstan, the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia and Mauritania. The first secretary recorded 78 events in which the UIHJ took part directly or indirectly since the last permanent council of November 2007. Amidst the major events is the European Council of Tallinn which joined together 25 countries of Europe and Americas. The UIHJ-Euros were very active: a UIHJ-EuroMed meeting in Cyprus in May 2008, two UIHJ-EuroNord meetings (Brussels in February 2008 and Amsterdam in September 2008, two UIHJ-EuroDanube meetings (Sopot in September 2008 and Budapest in October 2008). The international symposium of Libreville (Gabon) in October 2008 met a very great success and constituted a major political and media event in this country. The Ufohja seminar of April 2008 in Lomé (Togo), which gave the opportunity to give a progress report on Ohada as regards enforcement, also was a big success. On this occasion, the representatives of the UIHJ met the President of the Republic of Togo, Faure Gnassingbé. In the field of training, the Scientific Council of the UIHJ was launched on June 20th, 2008 in a very solemn inaugural session. Amongst the international events, the 2nd international symposium of Algiers of June 2008 has established a new record of frequentation. The conference, whose topic was the promotion of the efficiency of legal decisions to guarantee investment and commercial exchange, was followed by more than 1200 people. The UIHJ also took part in conferences in Almaty (Kazakhstan) in October 2008, in Minsk (Belarus) in July 2008, in Izhevsk (Russian Federation) in November 2008, in Turkey in May 2008 with the Council of Europe, in Vietnam with the Agency for the international legal co-operation (Acojuris) in June then July 2008, as well as in the Balkans (Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia) in July and August 2008. In short, the year 2008 was certainly the richest of the UIHJ in terms of participations in actions of international scale.

3 New Members

It was then time to establish the new members of the UIHJ. The ceremony started with the Republic of Belarus, represented by Victor Golovanov, Minister for Justice, and by Victor Kamenkov, President of the Supreme Economic Court. Belgium, represented by Roger Dujardin, sponsored this membership. Mr. Kamenkov presented the Belarus system of enforcement of court decisions. He indicated that he shared the views of the UIHJ concerning the rise in the level in the profession. In crisis period, he says, the role of judicial officers must be more important. Mr. Golovanov declared that his country was very grateful for the offered possibility to share the experience of other countries in the field of the activities of the judicial officers. He specified that there are approximately 1 000 judicial officers in Belarus. Membership to the UIHJ will make it possible “to reinforce democracy and to safeguard the Belarus civil rights” said he. Both declared very happy to be able to join the rows of the UIHJ and announced their desire to actively continue the young collaboration with the UIHJ in order to allow an effective development of the occupation of judicial officer in Belarus.
The Russian Federation was represented by Nicolaï Vinnitchenko, director of the Federal Enforcement Service of the ministry of justice. It was France, represented by Guy Duvelleroy, which had the honor to sponsor the largest country of the world. The president of the CNHJ evoked the long road, started seventeen years ago, leading to this crowning. He declared very proud to sponsor the Russian Federation and greeted on this occasion professor Vladimir Yarkov, member of the Scientific Council of the UIHJ, “a major factor of prospection for the UIHJ in the Euro-Asian zone”. Nicolaï Vinnitchenko presented the Federal service created in 2004 which he leads. Judicial officers, he recalled, appeared in Russia in 1864 within the framework of the legal reform initiated by Tsar Alexander II. Today, the service includes 65 000 people divided on all the territory. In 2007, 34 million enforcement cases were recorded. The Russian judicial officers also deal with the safety of courts and with bringing, sometimes by force, parties in front of the judge. After having described the new law on enforcement, Mr. Vinnitchenko indicated that once the financial crisis will be over, the Russian Federation would consider the creation of a body of liberal judicial officers. He then invited the participants to go to Russia in order to meet their Russian counterparts, within the framework of the co-operation with the UIHJ.

Thanks to the actions of Sue Collins, the National Sheriffs' Association decided to join the UIHJ at the terms of its annual conference which took place from June 28th to July 2nd, 2008 in Indianapolis. American Sheriffs employ more than 330 000 people and their overall operational budget is over 22 billion USD! The NSA was sponsored by Leo Netten, 1st vice-president of the UIHJ. He greeted the admirable work done by Sue Collins who made the necessary contacts and managed to convince the representatives of the NSA of the interest for this organization to join the UIHJ. Craig Webre, past president of the NSA, on behalf of the new president David A. Goad, presented the role of Sheriffs on criminal and civil level. He declared that “Our association recognizes that the challenges and opportunities of the globalization of the 21st Century necessitates that we reach beyond the borders of our country and that we seek to ally our colleagues across the borders so that we can better serve our institutions and also to learn from all the various countries in the way that you conduct the affairs of judicial officers. I want to express my gratitude to the President Isnard and the bureau to allow us the status of observer member at this time”.

3 International Organizations and 4 UIHJ-Euros

On the agenda of the permanent council were the relations with international organizations. Regarding the Council of Europe, the CEPEJ is setting up a working group on enforcement. Twice a year the UIHJ follows the work of the CEPEJ while taking part in the plenary sessions as a permanent observer member. The UIHJ should be associated to this working group whose mission will be to reflect on concrete means to reinforce the efficiency of enforcement of legal decisions in Europe.

As regards the Organization for the Harmonization in Africa of Business Law (Ohada), president Isnard regretted the refusal by the Committee of the ministers of this organization to consider the project of a uniform act on a harmonized statute of judicial officers in Africa. He estimated that the reasons for refusal are not sufficient to bury this great project and that our African fellow-members will actively continue actions to make it happen. In the field of the European Union, Jacques Isnard gave a report of his participation in the Forum justice organized by the European Commission in Brussels on May 30th, 2008. “The EU realized that it could not continue to evolve in the legal sense of the term without considering the professionals” indicated the president of the UIHJ, hence the creation of this Forum. One of its objectives is to work effectively with the CEPEJ.

On the UIHJ-Euros, Nikola Hesslen, permanent secretary of the UIHJ for the Scandinavian countries presented the activities in the countries she is in charge of (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland).

Johan Fourie (South Africa), Cadat secretary, evoked the evolutions in the countries of Southern Africa, and in particular the pilot project of training for judicial officers in Swaziland in co-operation with the UIHJ, the National school of procedure of Paris (ENP), associations of Sheriffs of South Africa and Swaziland and the authorities of these countries. It will be the first time that the UIHJ will intervene concretely in Southern Africa as regards training. The project will then be extended to other countries of the zone: Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Uganda.

Then Sue Collins (the USA), David Walker (Scotland) and Jos Uitdehaag, first quaestor of the Committee of the UIHJ, gave a report of their activities, respectively in the USA, the United Kingdom, and the Balkans. Bernard Menut, Secretary of the board of the UIHJ, then evoked the projects he is in charge of, by giving the example of three of them where the UIHJ is involved: Tunisia (assistance to the ministry for justice, training, management, legislative texts), Democratic Republic of Congo (American financing over five years), and Ukraine.

Michal Redelbach, vice-president of the national chamber of the judicial officers of Poland and secretary of UIHJ-EuroDanube, gave a report of the two meetings which were held in Sopot (Poland) on September 27th and 28th 2008 and in Budapest (Hungary) on October 30th and 31st 2008. He insisted on the aspect of the dematerialization of documents and in particular of archives. Questionnaires were addressed to the countries of UIHJ-EuroDanube concerning the occupation of judicial officer in their countries. Francoise Andrieux evoked the 8th UIHJ-EuroMed session which took place in Cyprus from May 8th to 10th 2008. At the conclusion of the meetings, six recommendations relating to the common bases established between the countries of UIHJ-EuroMed were enacted. On the model of UIHJ-EuroDanube, it was decided to publish the carried out work.

1 International Training Counsel

Then Roger Dujardin, vice-president of the UIHJ, described the creation of the Scientific Council of the UIHJ, solemnly installed on June 20th, 2008 in Paris. It is composed of renowned professors at world level who expressed a special interest for the profession, judicial law and enforcement law. This moment was important, said our fellow-member, within the framework of the action which the UIHJ undertook to develop the spreading in the world of legal culture, “to contribute to reduce the inequalities and the fractures within our societies”. In his turn, Abel Pansard, president of the International Training Counsel of judicial officers (CIFHJ) evoked the creation of this new entity, created in collaboration with the UIHJ, the CNHJ and the ENP. This creation is based on the observation that there is an increasingly large need as regards training from the Member States of the UIHJ. The CIFHJ makes it possible to coordinate training actions between countries, as well as organizing and planning them. Gradually training will be installed to support the promotion of enforcement law in the world by taking account of the division Civil Law/Common Law. Mourad Skander, member of the board of the UIHJ, then spoke about the next contest of the UIHJ in coordination with the ENP. This contest results from a will to cooperate with the university world. “The Conduct and the Implementation of Enforcement Activities in Civil and Commercial matter” is the topic of this 2nd edition of the contest. Francis Guépin, member of the board of the UIHJ, presented the new magazine “Juris-Union” whose first number on the topic of the European Enforcement Order was published a few months ago. It is a question of making academic contributions. Our fellow-member also presented the project of a world library of which one of the objectives is to publish the work of scientific nature completed by the members of the UIHJ, in particular those carried out at the time of the many conferences and seminars organized by the UIHJ and its antennas.

Honoré Aggrey, permanent secretary of the UIHJ for Central and Western Africa, presented his report on the activities of the Training Unit of African judicial officers (Ufohja) for the year 2008. He recalled as a preliminary that Ufohja was created on the initiative of the African judicial officers and the UIHJ, in partnership with the ENP.

Francis Guépin then gave a report of the three workshops which were held the day before. He was pleased with the excellent participation. Concerning mediation, an inventory was made by the participants. For our fellow-member, “mediation before the recourse to the judge or the decision of the judge is a reserved domain of lawyers. Paradoxically, it seems that lawyers are not too active on the matter. Judicial officers are absent or little present on the matter. Judicial officers have a role to play in the “post judicial” mediation. Admittedly we are enforcement agents but we have an economic and social role. We must carry out the decision of the judge under humane conditions. Society would be on fire if judicial officers carried out blindly legal decisions”. The second workshop dealt with auctions. The liability of the officer salesman was particularly approached and it was concluded that the matter was to be developed. The third workshop related to new technologies and dematerialization. A presentation of the Hungarian system made a strong impression on the participants. In Hungary, judicial officers have the monopoly of forced auctions on immovable and they have set up a system of dematerialized biddings. The judicial officer is the central figure and impossible to circumvent of this system. A review was then made on the use of new technologies by judicial officers. The latter, thanks to their know-how, are thus presented as natural trusted third parties.

3 Workshops for a Congress

On communication, Mathieu Chardon presented the issue #22-23 of UIHJ-Magazine which has just been published and which recalls the activities of the UIHJ for the last year. As regards the frequentation rate of the UIHJ website, he indicated an average of 10 000 consultations per month. He then evoked the leaflets UIHJ-Europe and IDJPEX as well as the magazine Juris-Union.

Then followed the interventions of the delegations which had asked for the floor: Belgium, Chile, Algeria, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Germany, Quebec, and Tunisia.

An assessment was drawn up on the first World day of the judicial officers. Delegations were asked if the event had to be renewed. The whole of the delegations expressed their support by indicating that a considerable positive impact was recorded everywhere where the demonstration was organized, in particular in African countries. At the conclusion of the discussions it was agreed to fix the date of the world day on the second Thursday of June. The central theme will be proposed by the UIHJ. Each country will be able to adapt the topic to its own interests.

Francoise Andrieux gave a report of the meeting of the secretaries of the UIHJ-Euros which had been held the day before. This meeting made it possible to reflect on the role of the secretary, from where will result a standard statute. The harmonization of the various UIHJ-Euros was also discussed: periodicity (annual), duration (three days), topics (imposed and free), installation of Internet sites, publication of work, etc. Then our colleague presented the work in progress of the congress of Marseilles. Three workshops are created. Workshop 1 is entitled “the change”. It aims at reconsidering the classification of goods by taking account of socio-economic evolution on a worldwide scale. The 2nd workshop is entitled “the opening”. It will consider work of the last three international congresses of the UIHJ: Athens (2000), Tunis (2003) and Washington (2006). This will in particular make it possible to apply the reflections resulting from these congresses to the new activities of judicial officers and to extract structural world standards on enforcement. The 3rd workshop, entitled “the guarantee”, resulting from the two precedents, will treat the general topic of “the judicial officer, as an essential component of the Rule of law”. A heading will be soon opened on the UIHJ web Internet site to present the works.

3 Rewards

At the conclusion of the permanent council, president Isnard recalled how much the event had been rich and profitable. He wished everyone a safe journey home and invited all to meet in September 2009 in Marseilles for the 20th international congress of the UIHJ.

This report could not be complete without bringing back two events which proceeded in margin of the works. The first relates to Irak Yelekeev, President of the Legal Administrative Committee of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Mr. Yelekeev was declared Man of the year 2008 by the UIHJ, because of the whole of his work to ensure the promotion of the liberal judicial officer in the countries of the Former Soviet-Block and in Asia. The second concerns Jacques Bertaux, past president of the CNHJ and member of the French delegation at the UIHJ. Newly retired, Jacques Bertaux is an ardent supporter of the interests of the profession at national and international level. He participated in many missions for the UIHJ. He received from the hands of President Isnard the Honorary diploma of the UIHJ in recognition of the multiple services rendered. The third concerns Jacques Isnard. Within the sumptuous surroundings of the Invalids in Paris on November 27th, 2008, the president of the UIHJ was made Officer of the Legion of Honor by Guy Canivet, past president of the French Supreme Court, and currently a member of the French Constitutional council. Through the president of the UIHJ, all the judicial officers of the world are honored by this prestigious mark of distinction which was given to him for the whole of the actions he carried out in favor of our profession since so many years.