General Assembly of the European Network of Judicial Councils

On the 24 and 25 of May, the General Assembly of the European Network of Judicial Councils was held in Wroclaw (Poland). The main topic was “Public confidence in an independent Judiciary in Europe”. The Network of the Presidents was represented by its president, Mr Canivet, who made a speech on the “Practical implication of the judicial systems in the reinforcement of mutual trust between the Judge and EU Member States” (in French only).

European Arrest Warrant – Czech Republic On the 4th of May, the Czech Constitutional court approved the transposition of the Framework decision on the European arrest warrant. The article 14 of the Czech Fundamental rights Charter, which prohibits banishment of Czech citizens was at stake.

Constitutional Reform in the United Kingdom “Doing differently” was the motto of the constitutional reform of the Judiciary in the United Kingdom. The effective date of most aspects of this reform was the 3rd of April 2006. Even if the Supreme Court will only be set in 2009, the presentation of the UK judiciary on this website has undergone several changes and new links have been made to the relevant British websites.

Improving the length of judicial proceedings The European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice works on the processing of each case within an optimum and foreseeable timeframe and has drafted a Framework programme for it. During its plenary meeting in December 2005, the Commission adopted a “Management checklist”, that is a checklist of indicators for the analysis of lengths of proceedings in the justice system. It should be a tool to collect relevant information, analyze them and reduce undue delays.