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.

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, non- governmental 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) – 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

Recent activity - I CEPEJ published its 4th evaluation report on European judicial systems in Ljubljana (Slovenia) at the end of October 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?