Joint event of the Center for Legal Research and Analysis and IPA 2010 project.
On the 16th of November 2016, at the ARKA hotel in Skopje, the CLRA programme “Improving the Quality of Justice in Macedonia” together with the IPA 2010 project for “Further support to Independent, Accountable, Professional and Efficient Judiciary and Promotion of Probation Service and Alternative Sanctioning” organized a joint event for unifying the court practice in the Macedonian judiciary.
The event was opened by Justice Lidija Taseva, Head of the Court Practice Unit at the Supreme Court of Macedonia. In the name of the Supreme Court, Justice Taseva thanked both projects for the support, efforts and contribution for the progress of the judiciary in Macedonia, stressing out that the support is continuing in times when the judiciary is receiving an unfavorable grade. She emphasized the importance of these kinds of events, workshops and round tables for overcoming the so called mental barrier between judges on the application of case law.
Lidija Stojkova Zafirovska, the President of the Center for Legal Research and Analysis welcomed the cooperation with the Supreme Court of the Republic of Macedonia and the IPA project. Speaking about the importance of judicial practice, especially in Macedonia, she noted that studies show that citizens do not trust the judiciary institutions when they show inconsistency and selectivity in their work, which is connected with closeness that in the public eye is perceived throw a low point of trust in the judiciary and a perception that justice is difficult to reach for everyone. Stojkova Zafirovska said that to cooperate for overcoming barriers and to develop and agree a common influence throw partnership in times like these is a positive story and a rare opportunity and privilege and that CLRA managed to recognize the needs of the citizens and the institutions aiming and willing to take steps towards improvement and creation of preconditions for further modest but consistent changes. She briefly presented the programme of the Center for Legal Research and Analysis supported by the British Embassy Skopje, explaining that the component which deals with the court practice in Macedonia is based on two pillars – development of a Guideline by the Supreme Court (in cooperation with national and international experts) for using of the court practice and for application of the law, and support to the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors to conduct regular training for judges on jurisprudence as part of the regular program of the Academy in collaboration with the Judicial College form London. CLRA President welcomed the support from the Ministry of Justice for this programme, that in order to help for a successful implementation of the activities of the Center, signed a memorandum of cooperation with the British Embassy Skopje and the Center for Legal Research and Analysis in September 2016. She concluded that taking the lead by the Supreme Court is not just fulfilling the constitutional and legal principles and provisions for ensuring uniform application of the law by the courts, but it is also a leadership on the broader sense of involvement and commitment, which should result in changing the way of working in the other courts as well. This is just the beginning of a very important trip for the Macedonian Judiciary – which will actually have the effect of raising real trust in the courts and the credibility that is often disputed.
The audience was also addressed by Dovidas Vitkauskas, Head of IPA 2010 project, who said that is pleased by the joint coordinated events and activities of the projects for judicial practice. These events actually show that this important topic requires commitment and cooperation of all stakeholders together. Vitkauskas expressed satisfaction that in recent years the thematic discussions on case law are exceeded and that it is not anymore about “copying the English legal system” but about the obligation of the European Court of Human Rights for harmonized and uniform application of the law. He noted that clarity and predictability are the most important principles of the rule of law, which can be achieved through the use of court practice.
Judge Bert Maan from the Netherlands, an international expert for IPA, thanked for the presence and for the opportunity to present the work of the IPA project. He noted that the starting point for the jurisprudence in the country is the role of the Supreme Court to ensure compliance of the decisions in the country, and that the case law is based on two aspects. The practice has to be published and available, and judges should know how to find the relevant case-law.
Zarko Hadji-Zafriov, Senior Programme Manager at CLRA addressed the approach of the Center for Legal Research and Analysis in the area of direct communication with the institutions for providing help within the programme activities. He presented the activities of CLRA within the last year’s project “Supporting the establishment of unified court practice in the Macedonian legal system”, which was a kind of pilot testing for the capacities to establish such a system in Macedonia. An Analysis for assessment of the situation in the Macedonian legal system in the area of jurisprudence was conducted, than the direct talks with the Supreme Court started in regard how the project can help the court for the uniform application of the law. With that purpose, a workshop with judges, lawyers, notaries, bailiffs and the Ministry of Justice was organized in February this year, and in was concluded that changes are needed in the Law of Courts. So the CLRA organized a working group to draft amendments to the Act in order to ensure legal certainty in Macedonia through the use of case law. In parallel, CLRA has cooperated with the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors, where training for judges and prosecutors on the application of case law was held. Also training for trainers on the same subject was held. Both trainings were conducted by Judicial College of London. The Judges form the College developed Guidelines for trainers using court practice that will be part of the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors. After the project was well received by all stakeholders, especially by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Macedonia as the primary stakeholder for uniform application of the law in Macedonia, the CLRA again with the support of the British Embassy, began implementing a 2 year programme in which one of the major component is exactly the unification of the court practice. In the first phase of the programme, a preparation of Guidelines for using of court practice of the European Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Macedonia is ongoing. After its adoption by the Supreme Court, it will be disseminated to all judges in the country as an optional but useful guide that will help citing court decisions primarily of a technical nature. In the following period, the CLRA with the help of experts will assess the computer needs of the Supreme Court regarding the case law, and has already provided a system of volunteering in the court for the same segment, in order to scan the decisions that are in hard copy, in order to become computerized and can be subject to search. The programme will also help the Macedonian Judges Association regarding the publication of decisions of the Supreme Court on their website. The aim is to help the process of legal certainty and the whole prosecco of implementation of already outlined law postulates regarding court practice.
Jelena Ristik, an attorney from Skopje and a legal expert at the Center for Legal Research and Analysis presented a summarized illustration of the national legal framework for the use of court practice in the country. An example of laws that include provisions for the application of case law in Macedonia are the Law on Civil Procedure, Law on Administrative Disputes, Law on Criminal Procedure, the Law on Civil Liability for Defamation and the Law on Protection of Privacy.
In the second part of the event, a team of experts from the IPA project, Judge Bert Maan, Turus Pestininkas and George Gichev addressed the need for a functional web site and IT support for the functioning of the judicial practice in one state. Judge Maan presented the Dutch experience, while Pestininkas and Gichev spoke of the web sites of the Macedonian judiciary and the current situation in the country.
Atanas Georgievski, an attorney from Skopje and a legal expert in both projects, presented experiences from the Academy of Judges and Public Prosecutors and the aspects of how court practice is used in the Academy as a tool. He spoke about the activities in cooperation with the projects undertaken by the Academy in relation to training and educational aspects of harmonized court practice.
In the least part of the event, Judge Lidija Taseva spoke about the current activities of the department of Court Practice at the Supreme Court in cooperation with the programme “Improving Quality of Justice in Macedonia” with the Center for Legal Research and Analysis, and Vesna Andonova, secretary of the department and an independent judicial assistant spoke about the technical needs of different degrees and levels of courts.
At the end, Professor Gordana Buzarovska Lazetik, senior legal expert at the CLRA briefly presented the Guide for citing the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court of Republic of Macedonia. She noted the need to consider the fact that Macedonia has relatively speaking “lost” quite a number of judgements at the ECtHR due to the fact of uneven application of the law, which opens many questions about the rule of law, legal certainty and consistency.