SOME OF THE HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE OF JUDICIAL QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES: PART ONE

Abstract

The problems of the unsatisfactory quality of Ukrainian justice remained the subject of discussions for representatives of political, scientific and expert circles for a long time. A considerable number of successful and unsuccessful attempts and approaches to reform the judicial system have been made since Ukraine gained independence. Unfortunately, even the wave of progressive constitutional changes and innovations that took place in 2016 in the legislation on the activities of judges did not complete the construction of an effective, transparent and responsible judicial system. This situation dictates the conduct of further research, which includes the study of foreign experience as a tool that will help to form a set of practical steps capable of significantly improving the existing justice system. The article examines issues related to the study of the experience of evaluating the justice system in European countries. The report of the Consultative Council of European Judges, formed in 2008 on the basis of a questionnaire survey of the member states of the Council of Europe, was used as the main source of information. Despite the fact that a lot of time has passed since the survey was conducted, this report remains one of the most interesting, in the opinion of the author, informational materials prepared by international institutions, which consistently analyze the issues of assessing the quality of the justice system in European countries. It reveals some fundamental concepts, the understanding and consideration of which is necessary for the formation of a successful justice system in Ukraine. This work studies the European experience of evaluating the justice system of a group of countries in which, at the time of its creation, there was no legally defined procedure for evaluating the quality of justice, except through mechanisms for reviewing court decisions within the framework of appeals and cassation appeals. In particular, this group includes Great Britain, France, Germany and some Baltic countries. At the same time, a number of steps implemented in them to collect information on the results of the work of judicial bodies, in the opinion of the author, were evidence that countries are aware of the need to develop more sophisticated mechanisms for evaluating the work of judicial bodies and the introduction of “detailed” statistical analysis Thus, evaluation of the work of the courts was carried out in the formats of public evaluations, in the form of statistical data collection by the courts of higher instances, in mixed formats of the public and representatives of the courts, etc. Among the indicators studied in the context of evaluations were indicators of the quality of court decisions (as the main criterion for assessing the quality of justice), timeliness of the trial, efficiency of the organization of the trial, satisfaction of the trial participants, etc. This work is the beginning of a series of analytical articles that will examine the issues of assessing the quality of justice in European countries based on the report of the Advisory Council of European Judges. In the following articles, countries where there are legally established mechanisms for evaluating justice will be considered.