1. Courts and Communication V., Budapest - 2017
Clarity in justice
Dr. András Osztovits
judge, Kúria
Courts and Communication V., Budapest

2. Jurisprudence-analysing working group
Set up by the President of Kúria, 2013 Aim: examine the drafting methods of Hungarian court decisions Members: 6 Kúria judges, a linguistics professor, a playreader, an IT expert Forming 3 sub-groups: linguistics, information technology, comparative law

3. Linguistics sub-group
Result of examination several hundred decisions
cumbersome sentence structure, stylistic errors, grammatical mistakes
no uniform spelling rules of dates, numbers, names, abbreviations
legal expalantion lengthy and cumbersome
detailed factual background with non-relevant informations

4. Information technology sub-group
part of decisions can be automated
computer programme can be developed:
- can offer textual variables
- can recognise names, sensitive datas
- not tie the judges’ hand
- result more uniform and searchable decisions

5. Comparative law sub-group
Sources:
Magna Charta of Judges (CCJE)
Vilnius Declaration (ENCJ)
drafting practices of 18 European countries
Results:
use of clear and understandable terms is a universal need
shorten the length of decisions

6. Summary report
Published in 2014 Five levels of unification of decision writing: 1. linguistic correctness 2. stylistic correctness 3. citation uniformity 4. structural uniformity 5. contents Need for a stylebook

7. Stylebook Conclusions:
logical set of arguments in the reasons of a decision
only necessary factual background
summarisation and categorisation of parties arguments
avoid irrelevant explanations

8. Stylebook
References to legal rules References to case law References to legal literature References to explanatory note of Ministry of Justice

9. First experiences of the Stylebook
Recommendation of the President of Kúria (2014) Positive feedback from courts and legal professionals More transparent and searchable decisions 5 years later a new analysing working group

10. Thank you for your attention!