The ENCJ considered in addition that there is a need for the establishment of Minimum Judicial Standards in relation to the involvement of non-judicial members in Judicial Governance. Project VI was established to consider this issue, coordinated jointly by Italian coordinator – Professor Alessio Zaccaria of the University of Verona, member of the Italian Judicial Council and Polish coordinator – Lukasz Bojarski, member of the Polish Judicial Council (2010-2015), and President of INPRIS (Instytut Prawa i Społeczeństwa/Institute for Law and Society).
The Project Team has approached the task of defining minimum standards in this field on the basis that such standards, fully respecting the principle of subsidiarity and independence, should be limited to those which are considered indispensable for the organization and management of a Judicial Council or other relevant body as defined below.
Taking into account the great variety of possible participants in Judicial Governance and the various systems for appointing and managing non-judicial members in Judicial Governance across Europe, the Project Team sought to investigate the status quo, by forwarding a questionnaire to the representatives of various countries with specific regard to the participation of non-judicial members in a) Judicial Councils, b) judicial appointment procedures and committees, and c) complaint and disciplinary procedures or committees (please see the annex).
In addition the Project Team sought the opinions of members of Judicial Councils regarding the participation of non-judicial members in Judicial Governance by asking some open-ended questions in a separate questionnaire. In analysing the large amount of information thus obtained, we took into account the work already done by the previous five Minimum Judicial Standards Projects and also conclusions reached on the subject internationally, such as those of the Venice Commission .
The draft report was presented to the ENCJ General Assembly which met in Warsaw 1-3 June 2016. The report and the standards and recommendations that it entails were adopted by the General Assembly on June 3rd 2016.
The ENCJ considered that there was a need for the establishment of Minimum Judicial Standards in relation to the involvement of non-judicial members in Judicial Governance. The Project Standards VI was established to consider this issue. The Project Team has approached the task of defining minimum standards in this field on the basis that such standards, fully respecting the principle of subsidiarity and independence, should be limited to those which are considered indispensable for the organization and management of a Judicial Council or other relevant body as defined below. Taking into account the great variety of possible participants in Judicial Governance and the various systems for appointing and managing non-judicial members in Judicial Governance across Europe, the Project Team sought to investigate the participation of non-judicial members in
a) Judicial Councils
b) judicial appointment procedures and committees, and
c) complaint and disciplinary procedures or committees.
The report and the standards and recommendations that it entails were adopted by the General Assembly on June 3rd 2016. The annex contains the preparatory work through a questionnaire and replies.
