Transcript Bosnia Statistical Training Prosecution/Courts Session 8, November 23,European Commission on Efficiency of Justice What is CEPEJ? • The CEPEJ is the European Commission for the.

Bosnia Statistical
Training
Prosecution/Courts
Session 8, November 23,
2010
European Commission on
Efficiency of Justice
What is CEPEJ?
• The CEPEJ is the European Commission for the Efficiency of
Justice sponsored by Council of Europe which BiH is part of
• Its aims are:
– to analyse the results of judicial systems
– to identify the difficulties they meet
– to define concrete ways to improve, on the one hand, the evaluation
of their results, and, on the other hand, the functioning of these
systems
– to provide assistance to member States, at their request
– to propose to the competent instances of the Council of Europe the
fields where it would be desirable to elaborate a new legal
instrument.
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/cooperation/cepej/presentation/cepej_en.asp
How does it work?
To carry out these different tasks, CEPEJ
• collects and analyses data,
• prepares benchmarks,
• defines instruments of measure and means of evaluation,
• adopts documents (reports, advices, guidelines, action
plans, etc),
• develops contacts with qualified personalities, nongovernmental organisations, research institutes and
information centres,
• organises hearings,
• promotes networks of legal professionals.
What has it done so far?
• The Council of Europe has started to review the efficiency of
justice and adopted recommendations which contain ways to
ensure both its fairness and efficiency
• The establishment of CEPEJ, under the Directorate General of
Human Rights and Legal Affairs, shows the intention of the
Council of Europe not only to create international legal
instruments but also to promote a detailed knowledge of the
judicial systems throughout Europe and of the different existing
tools which enables it to identify any difficulties and facilitate
their solution.
• The CEPEJ will have, among other duties, the task of
continuing the on-going research into the potential offered by
new information technologies (IT) to improve the efficiency of
justice.
Chairman’s objectives
‘ There can be no such thing as the rule of law without an
independent, impartial judiciary, and one that is accessible
and understood and accepted by the public. For it is not
enough to have judged to have judged properly. It is for that
reason that, in keeping with the core principles defined by
the Council of Europe, the CEPEJ is also interested in the
processes and mechanisms of trials and the parties
involved. It is a question of devising pragmatic tools and
methods focusing on public justice policies and how they
operate on a day-to-day basis, and addressing both public
policy makers and legal practitioners in the 47 Council of
Europe member states.’
Data collection
• Questionnaire ( every two years)
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Resources on the justice system
Staff, Costs
Workload of justice system
Structure of justice system
Details process questions
• Bosnia’s national correspondent is Rusmir
Sabeta, HJPC,
• 2010 Bosnia Report is very complete - 58 Pages
and available on
•
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/cooperation/cepej/evaluation/2010/2010_BH.pdf
Recent activity - I
• CEPEJ published its 4th evaluation report on
European judicial systems in Ljubljana
(Slovenia) at the end of October 2010.
• The report presents quantitative and
qualitative data from 45 member states ,
providing the Council of Europe with a
detailed picture of the daily operations of
courts in Europe. The number of subjects and
states that are addressed make it unique.
Recent Activity - II
• The report enables policy-makers, the judicial community
and researchers to make liable analyses on the basis of
meaningful comparisons of the development of judicial
systems.
• Statistical series have made it possible to measure the
main trends in Europe on the evolution of judicial systems
and reform processes.
• The report contains comparative tables and comments on
public expenditure devoted to the judicial system, the
legal aid system, mediation, organisation of jurisdictions
and the court network, judicial staff, case-flow
management in courts and length of procedures.
Importance of CEPEJ
1. Encourages each country to compile the data
requested
2. When each country has completed its report it can
see if it implies any need for policy change
3. The compendium of national reports includes
many tables and commentary of comparative data
4. These show where BiH is when related to other
states.
5. We will give some examples of where BiH has
turned out.
Position of BiH - I
• % GDP spent on prosecutors – BiH spends the
most in all Europe (0.017%)
• % GDP spent on courts – BiH is highest in
Europe.
• BiH has quite a low spend on legal aid.
• At 2.4 per 100,000 population BiH has a quite
high number of court locations
• BiH has one of the lowest rates of accredited
mediators in Europe.
Position of BiH - II
• BiH has three times the rate of qualified judges
than England, and well above the European
average.
• BiH has the highest rate of professionalism
among its judges
• On average each prosecutor received 254 cases
in 2006 and prosecuted 66 of those in the
courts.
• There are 1.47 lawyers per professional judge in
BiH, one of the lowest ratios in Europe.
Discussion of 2010 Report
• Are people familiar with the contents of the report?
• How useful does the report seem to BiH?
• Has collecting the data caused BiH to consider what
these data mean for your country?
• Has reading the comparator report caused you to ask
any questions
• What improvements should be made to BiH’s
response to CEPEJ questionnaire
• What improvements should be made to the
questionnaire itself?