Evaluation Report on the functioning of judicial systems presented at the CEPEJ meeting
On December 08, 2020, the 34th plenary meeting of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice of the Council of Europe (CEPEJ) took place via video-conference. During the event, the 8th CEPEJ Report “European judicial systems – CEPEJ Evaluation Report – 2020 Evaluation cycle” (2018 data) was presented.
The biennial Report makes an overview on the functioning of the justice systems in
47 member States of the Council of Europe and three observer States to the CEPEJ, including Israel, Morocco and Kazakhstan, within the context of budgetary issues, justice professionals, organization of courts and court users, information technology, efficiency and quality of justice.
The Report consists of three parts. The first contains tables, graphs, statistical and analytical information on best practices and trends in the functioning of European judicial systems. The second is a collection of graphic profiles of the countries which took part in this year’s evaluation. All information collected during the preparation of Reports since 2010 has been consolidated in its third part.
It is interesting that among the pan-European trends, the CEPEJ Report notes a significant reduction in the number of first instance courts of general jurisdiction in Europe by 19% compared to 2010, as well as an increase in budget expenditures for judicial systems by 8%. This increase is explained by the active process of computerization of justice systems in the CoE member States.
Experts noted that less wealthy countries spend proportionately more on prosecutors, while richer countries invest more in legal aid. At the same time, the largest increase in such funding was recorded in Ukraine (+ 135% in euros and + 163% in national currency). According to the CEPEJ experts, it was caused by the increase in the hourly wages of lawyers and an increase in the number of cases in which legal aid was provided.
In general, in Ukraine in 2018, CEPEJ experts marked a significant increase in judges’ salaries, increased spending for judiciary training, improved access to justice, technical equipment of courts and renovation of court buildings.
A presentation of the main trends in the functioning of the European justice systems outlined in the Report is available at the link. More about the conclusions of the Report on Ukraine is here.
In addition, the meeting participants also resolved a number of important organizational issues, in particular, partially updated the composition of the CEPEJ management and revised the scheme of the next evaluation cycle for 2020–2022.
The CEPEJ also continued expert work on the use of artificial intelligence to improve the quality and efficiency of justice, in particular, approved the action plan of the newly established CEPEJ Working Group on Cyberjustice and Artificial Intelligence (CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST), as well as the feasibility study of possible certification mechanism for artificial intelligence tools and services based on the European Ethical Charter on the use of artificial intelligence in judicial systems. This Charter was the first step in the CEPEJ’s efforts to promote the responsible use of artificial intelligence in European judicial systems following the principles of the Council of Europe. In the study, the CEPEJ experts considered the possibility of introducing a certification mechanism for decisions within the area of artificial intelligence in justice to implement the Charter.
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The European Commission on the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) was established on 18 September 2002 in accordance with Resolution (2002) 12 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The CEPEJ is made up of 47 member States of the Council of Europe. The purpose of CEPEJ’s work is to increase the efficiency of justice bodies in the context of implementing CoE standards and recommendations. It is the initiator of numerous studies in this area, in particular, of a comparative nature. It prepares draft recommendations aimed at identifying opportunities and promoting the use of a variety of tools to combine the two key principles of justice: equity and efficiency.
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