2009 uzelac croatia legal reform
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Divided Societies 2009
Judicial Reform in CroatiaJudicial Reform in Croatia
Is The Glass (Half) Full or (Half) Empty?Is The Glass (Half) Full or (Half) Empty?
Prof. Dr. ALAN UZELACUniversity of Zagreb, Faculty of [email protected]
Prof. Dr. ALAN UZELACUniversity of Zagreb, Faculty of [email protected]
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Divided Societies 2009
Why ju
dicia
l refo
rm?
BBC and safetyfor tourists in
Croatia
The Haguecomplex
Chapter 23
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Divided Societies 2009
MoJ A
nti-co
rruptio
n ca
mp
aig
n
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Divided Societies 2009
Outlin
e
• Action plan of the judicial reform strategy– Reality or fiction?
• How to evaluate judicial reforms?- Subjective approach: perceptions- Objective approach: indicators
• Examples of subjective and objective indicators- Public perception- Objective indicators
- Structural comparison: Legal professions, courts, investments, duration of proceedings
- Functional evaluation: Judicial processes
- Can EU accession process help judicial reform?- Conclusions:
- Judicial reform between political illusion and tangible results.
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Divided Societies 2009
“Strategy” of judicial reform“Strategy” of judicial reform
Croatian way of dealing with unpleasant jobsCroatian way of dealing with unpleasant jobs
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Divided Societies 2009
Histo
ry o
f Actio
n P
lan
s
• Early reform attempts– 1995-2000
• reforms announced, wrong direction
– 2000-2003• attempts of reforms, mainly unsuccessful
• New way: production of Action Plans on reforms of judiciary– 2004: announcement– 2005: adopted by the Government– 2006: passed by the Parliament– 2008: Action Plan revised
• Achievements?
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Divided Societies 2009
Stra
tegy?
• Independence of judiciary– appointment, assessment and career
management– transparent system of promotion
• Impartiality– judicial ethics, anti-corruption measures
• Professionalism and expertise– training of prospective judges by a Judicial
Academy• Efficiency of the judiciary
– resolving backlog, cases older than 3 years– rationalisation of the court network– mediation– information technology, ICMS
• Free legal aid• Prison system• War crime proceedings
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Divided Societies 2009
How to evaluate reforms?How to evaluate reforms?
Criteria? Indicators?Criteria? Indicators?
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Divided Societies 2009
Objective indicators• benchmarks• statistical data• performance analysis
Public perception• polls• surveys• users’ satisfaction• interviews• views of outside observers
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Divided Societies 2009
Corru
ptio
n p
erce
ptio
n in
dex
2004 2005 2006
Judiciary 3,8Political parties 4
Judiciary 4,4
Political parties 3,6
Judiciary 3,7Health services 4,3
Parliament3,6
Parliament3,6
Economy4,2
Health services 3,6
Economy3,5
Parties & Parliament 4,1
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Divided Societies 2009
Vis-à-vis: Avis on judiciary
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Divided Societies 2009
EU
Pro
gre
ss report fo
r C
roatia
(XI/2
00
7)
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Divided Societies 2009
Comparing legal professions
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Divided Societies 2009
Ob
jectiv
e e
valu
atio
n o
f the
Eu
ropean ju
stice sy
stem
s?
• European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ)– Established Sep 2002 by CoE resolution
12(2002)– Operation initiated at the beginning of 2003
• Seated in Strasbourg
– Members: 47 CoE Member States• Plenary session – Working Groups – Bureau -
Secretariat
– Mandate:• To enable evaluation of European justice
systems, inter alia by development of qualitative and quantitative indicators & statistical means of evaluation
• Aim: to assist Member States in improving quality and efficiency of their justice systems
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Divided Societies 2009
Evaluation of the European justice systems
First evaluation • 2001 – 2003 period
(data for the year 2002)
Second evaluation • period 2004 – 2006
(data for the year 2004)
Third evaluation• period 2006 – 2008
(data for the year 2006)
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Divided Societies 2009
Law
yers in
Euro
pe
(per 1
00
.00
0 in
h.)
Source: CEPEJ Report, 2008. (2006 data)
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Divided Societies 2009
Num
ber o
f law
yers:
tren
ds 1
992
-20
09
Year Lawyers
% Interns %
1992 1221 100 380 100
1994 1782 146 483 127
1997 2100 172 550 145
2004 2493 204 965 254
2008 3427 280 1620 4260
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
1992
.
1993
.
1994
.
1995
.
1996
.
1997
.
1998
.
1999
.
2000
.
2001
.
2002
.
2003
.
2004
.
2005
.
2006
.
2007
.
2008
.
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Divided Societies 2009
0,0
5,0
10,0
15,0
20,0
25,0
30,0
CyprusFinlandSwedenRussian FederationUkraineItalyM
oldovaIcelandNorwayEngland and W
alesArm
eniaM
onacoAndorraG
ermany
Czech RepublicFranceBelgiumLatviaAzerbaijanPortugalAustriaM
altaM
ontenegroLuxem
burgScotlandEstonieAlbaniaLithouaniaSlovak RepublicBulgariaG
eorgiaNetherlandsHungaryTurkeyPolandRoum
aniaIrelandSloveniaNorthern IrelandSpainCroatiaSerbiaBosnia HerzegovinaDenm
arkG
reeceSan M
arino
Enforcement agents Notaries
Enforcement agents and notaries
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Divided Societies 2009
Num
ber o
f ju
dg
es in
Eu
rope
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Divided Societies 2009
Legal p
rofe
ssion
s in E
uro
pe
an
d C
roatia
European average
60%
13%15%
6%
6%
Judge Prosecutor Lawyer (ex. Advisor) Enforcement agent Notary
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Divided Societies 2009
Judicial organization - court locations (general competence courts and specialized courts) per 100.000 inhabitants (data 2004)
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Divided Societies 2009
Resu
lts o
f the T
win
nin
g
Pro
ject (F
inn
lan
d a
nd
A
ustria
)
COUNTY COURTSMUNICIPAL COURTS COMMERCIAL COURTSMISDEMEANOUR COURT
LEGEND:
COUNTY COURTS
MUNICIPAL COURTS
MISDEMEANOUR COURTS
COMMERCIAL COURTSALL UNOPENED COURTS
126266
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Divided Societies 2009
Stru
ctura
l conclu
sions fo
r C
roatia
• Underdeveloped legal landscape:– no bailiffs;– poor use of judicial employees– confusion regarding the role of “court
counsels”– surplus of judges
• Structural deficiencies– number of courts too high– unbalanced distribution of cases and
judges– judges are performing many non-
judicial tasks: enforcement, registers, internal administration
– some legal professionals are charged with the tasks that are not their core occupation (notaries)
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Divided Societies 2009
… a much harder task …… a much harder task …
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Divided Societies 2009€ /# inhabitants (100k)
Austria 71,30
France 32,99
Romania 5,48
Finland 51,03
Hungary 27,00
Ukraine 2,32
Croatia 30,43
Italy 46,76
Netherlands 53,07
Expenses of European statesfor their justice systems
Expenses of European statesfor their justice systems
data 2002.
Court budget +Legal aid expenses
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Divided Societies 2009
Court backlogs
0,4
0,6
0,8
1
1,2
1,4
1,6
1,8
2
2,2
2,4
1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Cour
t cas
es (i
n mi
llions
)
Backlog
Received
Resolved
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Divided Societies 2009
Stru
cture
of ca
ses
20
00
to 2
00
8 0
100
200
300
400
500
600
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Civil litigation Enforcement Land registry
Non-contentious Criminal
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Stimulating peaceful resolution ofdisputes by consent?
Litigations in MCJudgment Settlement Else
62% 2% 36%
Commercial litigationsJudgment Settlement Else
50,8% 3,6% 45,6%
Presudom Nagodbom Drugi način
Presudom
Nagodbom
Drugi način
Type of judgment:- full hearing: 80 %- claim admitted: 6 %- default: 14 %
Type of judgment:- full hearing: 92,7 %- claim admitted: 3,3 %- default: 4,0 %
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YearLitigations resolved by:
Judgment
% Court settlem
ent
% Else %
2001.2002.2003.2004.2005.2006.2007.
731546780576407103589877627961279446
62,658,264,165,157,061,462,2
3327285725653528352728142742
2,82,52,22,02,32,22,1
40312457794013552376626234728445619
34,539,333,732,940,736,535,7
YearJudgment based on
A full hearing
% Admittance
% Default %
2001.2002.2003.2004.2005.2006.2007.
55603518326018075620628066130963927
76,076,478,873,071,677,080,5
713269856720134741349681154945
9,710,38,813,015,410,26,2
104198988950714495114601018810574
14,213,312,414,013,112,813,3
Can you see some change?
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Divided Societies 2009
Can EU accession process resolve the problem?
Can EU accession process resolve the problem?
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Divided Societies 2009
Eu
ropean ju
stice sy
stem
s an
d th
e E
U
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Divided Societies 2009
• In spite of an urgent social need, the judicial reform does not seem to produce adequate results.
• EU accession process has facilitated reforms while there was sufficient time; in the last period, it had a negative impact, due to the political need to produce impression of results.
• The powerful corporative lobbies of legal professionals has effectively slowed down the process and blurred its aims.
• Only objective and neutral monitoring of the progress of judicial reform can be a guarantee for the continuing reform progress, but…
• …the scientific judicial studies are more hated than ever by those responsible for the reform strategies!
Con
clusio
ns
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Divided Societies 2009
Thank you for your attention!Thank you for your attention!
© uze
lac@
post.h
arv
ard
.ed
u