CEPEJ Evaluation Report on European judicial systems 2020 (2018 data) was approved by the Council of Europe
On October 21, 2020, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe approved the “European judicial systems – CEPEJ Evaluation Report – 2020 Evaluation cycle” (hereinafter the Report). This year’s Report, traditionally prepared by the CEPEJ Working Group on the evaluation of judicial systems every two years, and is based on 2018 data. Information for the Report was provided by 45 member States of the Council of Europe, as well as three observer States to the CEPEJ, including Israel, Morocco and Kazakhstan.
For the first time, the Report is composed of three parts. The first one contains statistics, tables and graphs, on which basis CEPEJ experts analyzed European trends in the context of a number of topics (budget, professionals, court organization, users of judicial services, IT, efficiency and quality of justice). This part presents both an overview of the state of play of judicial systems and the identification of trends in Europe, as well as specific cases that deviate from it with relevant comments. In order to better respond to current events, the Report also deals with issues such as the impact of e-Justice in the context of the Covid-19 crisis.
The second part of the Report consists of graphical profiles of the countries that participated in this year’s evaluation. In addition to information on human and financial resources, information on salaries or recruitment and promotion of judges and prosecutors is presented. The second part of the Report also contains data on the performance indicators developed by CEPEJ, including the clearance rate (CR) (how effectively courts within a State or entity are keeping up with the incoming caseload) and the disposition time (DT) (the estimated number of days that are needed to bring pending cases to an end), which allows analyzing the effectiveness of the courts of all three levels of instance.
In fact, the Report is an audit of the justice systems of European countries. Interestingly, from 2016 to 2018, 32 countries increased their budget allocated to courts. The strongest increase is registered in Ukraine (+83%, +105% in local currency). In particular, it is noted that Ukraine, as part of its judicial reform, invested heavily in the judiciary by increasing the salaries of judges and court staff, improving conditions of accessibility for court users, equipping courts and renovating court buildings.
In addition, Ukraine is among the top three in computerization. Compared to 2016, in 2018 the indicator of the implemented budget of Ukraine in this area was + 138%. Compared to 2014, significant investments in computerization were made by Serbia (+ 551%), Ukraine (+ 476%), Georgia (+ 187%), Hungary (+ 153%) and Sweden (+ 111%).
Among the countries that have increased investments in training and education are the United Kingdom – England and Wales (+ 396%), Azerbaijan
(+ 51%), Italy (+ 48%), Slovenia (+ 48%), Ukraine (+ 37%), Ireland (+ 22%). The countries that had the largest rise in the implemented budget allocated to salaries are Romania (+ 74%), Ukraine (+ 45%), Hungary (+ 31%) and the Republic of Moldova (+ 32%).
The implemented budget for legal aid has been increased in 25 States and entities and one observer State. 13 States and one observer have decreased it. The major increase is registered in Ukraine (+ 135% in euros and + 163% in national currency). The increase is explained by the rise in the lawyers’ hourly pay and the increase in the number of cases for which legal aid has been granted.
At the same time, CEPEJ experts paid attention to the significant outflow of judges from the judicial system of Ukraine – about 30%. Nevertheless, the number and pace of court proceedings in 2018 are generally on average in Europe, and in some cases even higher than the European median.
Among the general European trends identified in the Report, the following can be distinguished: in 2018, member States allocated 65% of judicial system budget to courts, 24% to prosecution services and 11% to legal aid; less affluent countries spend proportionately more on prosecutors, while richer countries invest more in free legal aid; the stability in the number of professional judges (the average in Europe being 21 judges, and in Ukraine – 13 judges per 100,000 inhabitants), with significant contrasts between countries, which can be explained by differences in the ways their legal systems are organized, or by recourse to non-professional judges (persons who are not judges by position in the sense of Ukrainian legislation) or to professional judges sitting only occasionally. Digital technology has become an integral part of providing court services.
Courts of the second instance in European countries appear to be the most effective according to the results of this study. The criminal justice system is the most efficient in all three instances. Courts of the first instance and courts of administrative specialization are less efficient.
Reforms undertaken in several countries have affected the performance of their justice systems. At the same time, the feminization of judges and prosecutors is continuing, but the glass ceiling remains firmly in place for managerial positions. States put an emphasis on ensuring a gender balance in judges’ recruitment and promotion procedures, however, the profession of lawyer remains predominantly male. An increase in the number of lawyers, with significant differences between states, with on average 164 lawyers per 100 000 inhabitants (in Ukraine – 108 lawyers per 100,000 inhabitants) is observed. These and other trends can be found in more detail in the Report.
It should also be noted that the data that was not included in the Report, but collected during its preparation, is contained in its third part – “CEPEJ-STAT”. It is a dynamic CEPEJ database which contains all the qualitative and quantitative data collected through the CEPEJ evaluation questionnaire since 2010. It also contains information on the budget of judicial systems, new technologies, gender in courts, etc. For this cycle, the CEPEJ has developed a new dashboard concerning efficiency.
Reference:
The European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) was established on September 18, 2002, in accordance with the Resolution (2002) 12 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. This is an expert organization for the efficiency of functioning of justice in the Council of Europe member States. The CEPEJ consists of 47 member States of the Council of Europe. The purpose of the CEPEJ’s activities is to increase the efficiency of judicial authorities of States as well as to draft more effective legal documents adopted by the Council of Europe. It is the initiator of many 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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