European judicial systems: 2008 findings and regional analysis Commission Européenne pour l’efficacité de la Justice European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice Dr. Pim Albers Special advisor
45 Member States are included Report presents data year 2006 Based on replies questionnaire received from Member States 3rd report (previous reports 2004 and 2006)
Financing of the judicial systems Access to justice and legal aid Court locations and use of ICT in the courts Mediators Facts concerning professional judges and prosecutors Court performance Facts concerning lawyers, enforcement agents and notaries
Public budget allocated to the judicial systems (courts, public prosecution and legal aid) per inhabitant
Total court budget allocated to the judicial system (excl Total court budget allocated to the judicial system (excl. legal aid and prosecution) per inhabitant as percentage per capita GDP
Distribution of the budgetary components
Court infrastructure (number of geographic court locations per 100 Court infrastructure (number of geographic court locations per 100.000 inhabitants
Court locations per inhabitant regionally compared and the court/judicial budgets (courts, public prosecution and legal aid)
Level of computerization communication facilities courts - environment
Number of professional judges per 100.000 inhabitants
Number of non-judge staff per professional judge 10,4 9,1 8,2 6,9 5,4 4,5 4,3 4,2 4,0 3,9 3,8 3,7 3,6 3,4 3,3 3,2 3,1 3,0 2,9 2,8 2,7 2,6 2,5 2,3 2,1 2,0 1,7 1,4 1,3 2 4 6 8 10 12 Malta Spain Ireland UK-England and Wales UK-Scotland Cyprus Estonia Serbia Italy Denmark Portugal Moldova Montenegro Croatia Belgium Turkey Lithuania Switzerland FYROMacedonia Poland Slovakia Azerbaijan Bosnia and Herzegovina Czech Republic Germany Finland Latvia Austria Hungary Slovenia Georgia Monaco Sweden Netherlands Bulgaria Romania Russian Federation France Norway Luxembourg Iceland Number of non-judge staff per professional judge
(Non-)professional judges per 100.000 inhabitants regionally compared
Court staff compared
Judges’ salaries
Number of incoming and resolved civil litigious cases per 100 Number of incoming and resolved civil litigious cases per 100.000 inhabitants
Number of incoming and resolved civil non-litigious cases and decisions per 100.000 inhabitants (in the region)
Average calculated disposition time (in days) = the number of days that cases are outstanding, or remain unresolved in court
Average disposition time land register and business register cases
Number of public prosecutors per 100.000 inhabitants (and cases received)
Annual budget for the public prosecution per inhabitant in €
Legal professionals per 100.000 inhab
General conclusions: trends in Europe Reduction geographic court locations Stimulation of the application of e-justice More use of ADR (especially mediation) Increase of the budget allocated to judicial systems More attention to the monitoring of cases with an exceptional duration Increase of the introduction of quality measures in the courts
Full report can be downloaded from the cepej website (from 8 October 2008) http://www.coe.int/cepej