The UIHJ was represented by its Secretary-General, Mathieu Chardon. After the opening session by Francesco Depasquale, President of the CEPEJ, the meeting began with a fascinating study session on “Does the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Increasingly Regulated Judicial Environment Still requires an Ethical Framework?“. This session echoed in some way the 3rd Global Forum on Enforcement organised by the UIHJ and the CEPEJ on 2 December 2024 in Strasbourg, at the headquarters of the Council of Europe, on the theme of “Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights and Enforcement of Court Decisions in Civil and Commercial Matters: What Guarantees for the Litigant?“, and which was a great success.
The session of 3rd December 2024 was moderated by Marek Świerczyński (Poland), Professor of law, member of the CEPEJ Artificial Intelligence Advisory Board (AIAB). Four speakers took the floor.
Stefanie Otte (Germany), Judge and President of the Celle Court of Appeal, spoke about “The Future of (Civil) Justice – What About Automation?“. Édouard Rottier (France), Legal Adviser, Deputy to the Director of the Documentation, Studies and Report Department, Director of the Open Data Project, and Head of the Case Law Dissemination and Open Data Unit at the French Court of Cassation, addressed the topic of “What Future for AI in Judicial Decision-Making?“. Kristian Bartholin, Secretary of the Committee on AI (CAI), Head of the Digital Development Unit, Council of Europe, presented “The Application of the Council of Europe AI Framework Convention in the Judicial Domain“. Finally, Kate Fox Principi, Lead on the Administration of Justice, Rule of Law Section, UN Human Rights Committee, addressed the topic of “Beyond Europe – Human Rights Challenges and Good Practices of the Application of Digital Technologies and AI in the Administration of Justice.”
The four CEPEJ working groups then presented their projects and current work. Jaša Vrabec (Slovenia), President of the CEPEJ-GT-EVAL, presented the CEPEJ evaluation report – European judicial systems, 2024 cycle (2022 data) and the specific studies on professionals, including that concerning enforcement agents and the enforcement of court decisions, the drafting of which, entrusted by the CEPEJ to the UIHJ, was carried out by Guillaume Payan, Professor at the University of Toulon (France) and member of the Scientific Council of the UIHJ. Mr Vrabec also discussed the presentation of the evolutions envisaged for the 2026 cycle and ongoing reflexions on the creation of new efficiency and quality indicators, the support to national correspondents and peer review, the cooperation with the European Union, the study on the functioning of judicial systems in the member States of the European Union (EU Justice Scoreboard) and continuation of this cooperation, the transmission of data in the view of their publication on Eurostat, the Dashboard Western Balkans, and the Justice Dashboard Eap (Eastern Partnership countries).
Maria Giuliana Civinini (Italy), President of CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST, and João Arsenio de Oliveira (Portugal), President of CEPEJ-GT-QUAL, presented the joint work of their respective working groups on artificial intelligence, through the Artificial Intelligence Advisory Board (AIAB), the Resource Centre on Cyberjustice and Artificial Intelligence, and the operationalisation of the CEPEJ Ethical Charter on AI.
João Arsenio de Oliveira, President of CEPEJ-GT-QUAL, discussed the specific work of his working group, including the qualitative Evaluation of Judges’ Work, the quality of Judicial Debate, access to justice Sustainability within courts and judicial administration, the revision of the satisfaction surveys methodology, the translation and interpretation in judicial proceedings, and the place of children in mediation. The Guidelines on the Evaluation of the Quality of Work of Judges were adopted unanimously.
Giacomo Oberto (Italy), President of CEPEJ-SATURN, discussed the ongoing work of his working group on the checklist for time management in the public prosecution service, the database on practices to reduce the backlog of cases (presentation of the prototype of the database), the tool on case weighting, the study on tools for measuring workload in judicial systems, the tool for analysing time frames according to the stages of civil proceedings, and the meeting of the CEPEJ Network of Reference Courts.
Finally, Maria- Giuliana Civinini (Italy), President of CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST, presented the specific work of her working group, including the draft Guidelines on online publication of case-law and legal knowledge access, the review of the Guidelines on videoconferencing in judicial proceedings, and the Glossary of Technology terms for judicial professionals.
The presentation of cross-cutting activities for all working groups concerned the improvement of work-life balance in the judicial system, and the study on the potential effects of the use of AI tools on the efficiency and quality of justice.
Mathieu Chardon thanked the CEPEJ Bureau and its Secretariat for having jointly organised with the UIHJ, and for the 3rd time, the Global Forum on Enforcement, on 2 December 2024, which was a great success.
Elections for the CEPEJ Bureau for 2025 and 2026 were also held. Francesco Depasquale (Malta) was re-elected as President, Ivan Crnčec (Croatia) was re-elected as Vice-President, and Sonya Djemni-Wagner (France) and Seçkin Koçer (Turkey) were also re-elected as members of the Bureau. The UIHJ congratulates Francesco Depasquale on his re-election as well as the other members of the 2025-2026 CEPEJ Bureau and looks forward to continuing its excellent cooperation with the CEPEJ.