Findex II – Recommendations of Working Group 2: Definition of the criteria to be met by the bodies responsible for the lists of experts
Recommendations from the Working Groups during the Findex II project are presented in this article. They are based on the talks given at the Consensus Conference.
| Organisational functions | Initially, the registering bodies should create their operating Statute, establishing their internal organisation, their composition, the functions of each person or committee, and the decision-making system, among other issues. Ensure that registers of judicial experts are made public. The easiest and most effective way to make the register public is through a website. Establish the frequency of the meetings of the persons acting for the registering bodies, as well as the specific functions of each of them, specifying which persons and committees have a decision-making and executive function, and which of them have an advisory role. |
| Registration and deregistration of experts | Verify that the applicant being registered meets the pre-established requirements, previously discussed and agreed upon other Working groups. Verify that the procedures for assessing experts were properly followed and ensure that the appropriate experts can be chosen for the specific judicial case (especially with regard to their specialty). Establish an action protocol for the periodic verification of the circumstances and requirements that have allowed the expert to be initially registered in the register. For the purpose of keeping the expert registered, deregistering him or, if necessary, expelling him for having accredited an improper behaviour. The Body should follow criteria for the evaluation of judicial experts according to the recommendations made by the CEPEJ (for instance, keep up-to-date statistics and disseminate them). Process the requests that arrive from any applicant. Create a disciplinary and fair procedure if a complaint is made against the judicial expert. |
| Expert support and assistance function | The registering bodies could recognise training courses run by institutions and universities. The registering body could facilitate or promote meetings between experts in order to allow them to exchange with each other on their functions e.g. difficulties they may face, mentoring new registrants, intervision. |
| Payment of the expert | The registering body could establish a fair system of payment. In other words, the registering body should ensure that the expert is remunerated in the established terms. |
Composition of the body
Preliminary remarks:
- The suggested staff of the organisation of the registering body is non-exhaustive.
- Not all suggested members need to be appointed. The composition of the body depends on the particularities of each country (size of the country, population, national unity or regionality…). Particularly, a difference should be made between a body under a national institutional organisation and a body under a national associative organisation:
- In the case of a body under a state institutional organisation (e.g. Ministry of Justice), the members of the body will be named by the institution, and will have a specific mandate as indicated by the governing leader.
- In case of a national associative organisation the body is an elective one, as such the members of the body will be composed by its own members, with a specific mandate according to the candidate program.
- In the interests of transparency, the composition of the registering body must be made known to the public.
- We recommend to respect gender equality among the staff of registering bodies.
Recommendations
| Physical members | The main users of the register should be represented in the bodies: – Magistrates or judges who exercise the jurisdictional function – Magistrates who exercise an executive and non-judicial function (for example, Senior Magistrates or members of the Courts of Appeal governing chambers). – Public prosecutors – Lawyers. Considering that when there is a request for an EXPERT there is a conflict whose parties have appointed a lawyer, it could be interesting to have a representative of the body of lawyers in the BODY’s management team. – Court Clerks (“Greffier de Justice” in France), subject to the registration body is a court. Their presence also seems necessary as they perform organisational functions within the courts. |
| Institutional members | – Expert organisations. Their function within the body would be to ensure the ethical behaviour of the judicial experts in accordance with the recommendations developed by WP2-WG1. – Sectoral organisations (for example, chambers of commerce, agriculture, unions, College of Medical Doctors, etc.). Their function is to ensure the technical competence of the applicants. |
Control of the decisions taken by the body
Several means can be used to control the decisions of the body:
- Upstream, it would be preferable for the body to give reasons for the decisions taken.
The reasoning makes the decisions of the registering body more transparent and is in line with the principles of fair trial. - Downstream, two controls can be envisaged:
- Internal control by the Ministry of Justice or applicable Ministries.
- External control by the state administrative court.
Requirements to be met by the register created by the body
| Number of register | It would be preferable for the registrar to develop a single register (and not a set of sectoral registers). The registrar could organise the register according to the nomenclature proposed by WP3. |
| Way of using the register | For reasons of simplicity, the register should be accessible online via the registrar’s website. |
| Access to the register | For the sake of transparency, the registrar should make its register accessible to all (not just to certain professions). It should also update the information regularly. |
